For the first time, the environmental movement has brought the issue of global warming before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether or not the federal Environmental Protection Agency has the authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate gases that cause global warming.
On Nov. 29, the Supreme Court heard the case which was brought by 12 states, including California and
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The case started in 1999 when the International Center for Technology Assessment and other environmental organizations petitioned the EPA to set greenhouse gas emissions standards for new vehicles. The EPA denied the petition in 2003, saying that it did not have the legal authority to regulate the gases. Furthermore, the agency stated that even if it had the authority, it was not required to exercise it, claiming that there is “scientific uncertainty” about global climate change.
In actuality, the scientific community largely agrees that increased greenhouse gases are the cause of a rise in global temperatures, which, in turn, cause more extreme weather patterns. Capitalist industrial production is the main contributor to this process.
If the Court rules in favor of the environmentalists and states, little would change immediately in terms of emissions. In the event of a victory for the plaintiffs, the issue would be remanded back to the EPA with recommendations for the criteria for creating emissions standards—hardly a stern mandate to cut greenhouse emissions. If standards were created by the EPA, they would only impact new vehicles in the United States—not touching power plant emissions or other sources of greenhouse gases.
But a favorable decision could open the door for environmentalists for continued legal strategy to reduce greenhouse gases coming from the United States, the biggest sources of such emissions.
Capitalists primarily culprits of global warming
If current trends continue, the United States will have increased its carbon emissions by about 300 million tons by 2010. Researchers have said that world emissions must be cut by 70 percent in order to halt the pace of global warming.
The U.S. capitalist class will not agree to cut emissions by even the smallest amount. It has refused to sign the extremely weak protocols of the Kyoto treaty on global warming, designed to reduce emissions by only 5.2 percent by 2012. The EPA’s refusal to impose greenhouse emissions standards on new vehicles is another aspect of this stance.
The environmental movement has forced the capitalist system to impose some limits on the destruction of the environment by using every means available, including legal challenges. But the protections can be reversed for any reason or none at all—for instance, by the decision of nine non-elected judges in the Supreme Court.
The struggle to protect the environment through regulation must be supported now. Reforms alone, however, cannot stop capitalism’s destructive drive. Environmental degradation will continue as long billionaires’ profits take precedence over a safe and clean environment.
