California greenhouse gas rules face major court test
Posted: 10/14/2012 05:17:07 PM PDT
Updated: 10/14/2012 05:45:11 PM PDT
Having fended off a challenge to groundbreaking emissions standards for new cars, California now finds itself in a legal tug-of-war to preserve some of its unprecedented regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of fuels.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday will hear arguments in a legal challenge to the 2006 regulations, which a Fresno federal judge last year struck down as unconstitutional. The judge sided with an array of gas, trucking and farming industry interests aligned against the complex effort to curtail the carbon footprint of transportation fuels.
Legal experts say the appeal could crucially test how far a state can go with such broad greenhouse gas regulations.
"Any comprehensive plan is going to have to confront this issue," said Daniel Farber, co-director of UC Berkeley's environmental law clinic. "A negative decision in this case could pose a barrier to aggressive state efforts to address climate change."
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