12 states sue EPA over failure to address global warming

Twelve states, several cities, and over a dozen environmental groups joined forces to challenge the Bush Administration’s continued failure to confront global warming. The plaintiffs are targeting the unprecedented ruling by the Environmental Protection Agency late last summer that summarily disavowed the agency’s long-standing jurisdiction under the Clean Air Act to regulate global warming emissions. The states, cities and groups challenged the EPA decision in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

States challenging EPA’s decision are CA, CT, IL, ME, MA, NJ, NM, NY, OR, RI, VT, and WA. Baltimore and New York City filed a separate petition.

Environmental Groups joining the challenge include the Sierra Club, Bluewater Network, Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, National Environmental Trust, Natural Resources Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists and U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).