US DOJ asks high court to reject caps on automotive CO2 emissions

Washington (Platts)--25Oct2006

The Bush administration filed legal papers late Tuesday detailing its
position in a landmark Supreme Court case that has huge implications for US
climate change and energy policies.

The case, which the high court will hear on November 29, pits a dozen
states and numerous environmental groups against the Environmental Protection
Agency. The coalition, led by Massachusetts, argued that EPA is obligated
under the Clean Air Act to regulate motor vehicle emissions of carbon dioxide
and other greenhouse gases in order to combat global warming.

Some experts believe that if the states and green groups prevail, EPA
would be forced to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants and other
industries, such as refineries.

The Department of Justice, which is representing EPA in the case, mounted
several arguments in its 50-page brief filed with the court. First, DOJ said
the states and green groups lack legal "standing" to bring the suit against
EPA because they have not shown that reducing CO2 emissions from new US motor
vehicles would stave off the onset of global warming in any appreciable way.

"Global climate change is, by definition, a global phenomenon," DOJ said,
estimating that new US cars and trucks generate "significantly less that 7%
of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, the states' hoped-for remedy
would engender only a "tiny reduction" in global emissions, and "nothing in
the record suggests that so small a fraction...could materially affect the
overall extent of global climate change," DOJ said.

DOJ also dismissed the petitioners' argument that regulating vehicular
CO2 emissions domestically would prompt other countries to do the same.
Moreover, since CO2 is spread throughout the atmosphere regardless of its
point of origin, nations that choose not to implement costly regulatory
schemes would get a "free ride" on the backs of countries that take action,
DOJ said.

In a related vein, DOJ also argued that forcing EPA to regulate CO2
emissions could undermine the ability of the Bush administration to negotiate
climate-change policies with other countries.

DOJ told the court that EPA cannot be forced to curb vehicular CO2
emissions because the only way it could do so would be to mandate improvements
in fuel economy. And that, DOJ said, would violate federal laws and
regulations that give the Department of Transportation exclusive power to
establish Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.

DOJ asked the Supreme Court to send the case back to the US Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where it was previously lodged,
with instructions to dismiss the matter. DOJ also urged the Supreme Court not
to "question the 'seriousness' of the complex issues surrounding global
climate change."

The states and environmental groups filed their arguments with the
Supreme Court on August 31. DOJ reiterated many of the arguments it raised in
a brief filed earlier this year urging the court not to take case. In their
August filing the states and green groups dismissed most of the agency's
arguments as "irrelevant," and said that a "straightforward reading" of the
Clean Air Act shows that EPA must regulate vehicular greenhouse gas emissions.

A ruling in the case is not expected until mid-2007.

--Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com

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