Feds seek to toss state's anti-warming lawsuit

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(08-26) 18:15 PDT WASHINGTON -- To the dismay of environmental groups, the Obama administration has told the U.S. Supreme Court that a global-warming suit by California and seven other states, seeking to require major power companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, should be dismissed.

In papers filed with the court this week, Justice Department lawyers argued that the authority to curb emissions that cause climate change belongs to the Environmental Protection Agency - which has taken the first steps toward regulating greenhouse gases - and to Congress, where administration-backed legislation is stalled.

The Justice Department also contended that states should be barred from suing private companies for the harm their emissions allegedly cause within state borders. The government said judges have no clear standards for measuring that harm and deciding how to allocate the costs.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/26/BAVU1F42KN.DTL

[derby378]

1. Polar ice is gone, nothing to see here, move along...

:grr:

[Xipe Totec]

2. Well, I don't think they have a choice in the matter

It's not an issue of global warming, or immigration, or any of the other issues that states want to claim jurisdiction over.

It's a question of federal power and federal jurisdiction.

[Kringle]

3. California is trying to extort money from other states .nt