Mass. leads court case to force US vehicle emissions limits

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Led by Massachusetts, 17 states and more than a dozen environmental groups today filed a rarely-used legal petition in federal appeals court to try to force the US Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit petition comes exactly a year after the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases are pollutants and ordered the agency to reconsider its refusal to use the Clean Air Act to limit emissions from new cars and trucks. The agency was directed to decide whether greenhouse gases are endangering human health or the environment and if so, to regulate them.

Since then, the petition says, the agency has refused to do either -- even though its officials have publicly acknowledged that heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, which cause global warming, endanger public health. But the agency has not issued a formal decision, and the petition asks the appeals court to order the EPA to act within 60 days.

"Once again the EPA has forced our hand, which has resulted in our taking this extraordinary measure to fight the dangers of climate change," said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. Massachusetts brought the original suit against the EPA that led to last year's ruling and is the lead plaintiff in this case.

"The EPA's failure to act in the face of these incontestable dangers is a shameful dereliction of duty," Coakley said.

Jonathan Shradar, an EPA spokesman, said the agency is reviewing the petition. He said the agency has recently decided to consider the danger of emissions of greenhouse gases more "holistically," by looking at all sources, not just cars. He said the Supreme Court did not give the agency a timeline, but the agency will make a decision on endangerment later this spring.

The petition comes amid growing frustration by state governments and environmental groups over the federal government's inaction on climate change. Ever-increasing scientific evidence shows that the release of heat-trapping gases from power plants, factories and cars are causing the world to warm and more severe weather. State governments -- including Massachusetts and nine other Northeast states -- are creating their own rules to limit greenhouse gases from power plants, but they do not limit vehicle emissions.

"The fact that states and groups representing citizens have been forced to go to court to hold the EPA accountable for failing to curb greenhouse gases highlights the needs for states and regions like New England to put forward with our own measure to combat this fundamental problem," said Seth Kaplan, vice president for climate advocacy for the Conservation Law Foundation, which joined the petition.