High court takes up global warming

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, November, 2006 | by Jennifer A. Dlouhy

The nine Supreme Court justices disagreed along familiar lines when they confronted the issue of global warming in the first case on climate change to reach the high court. Conservative justices, including Antonin Scalia, were skeptical of arguments by Massachusetts, New Jersey and 10 other states that they stand to lose hundreds of miles of coastline if the Environmental Protection Agency fails to impose limits on carbon dioxide and vehicle emissions believed to contribute to global warming.

Scalia challenged the states' attorney to prove there would be "imminent" harm if the EPA continues to refuse to regulate greenhouse gases. "When is the predicted cataclysm?" Scalia asked. Meanwhile, the court's liberal justices pressed a lawyer for the Bush administration to explain...