| Federal Court Finds Bush Administration Violated Law |
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| Thursday, 15 November 2007 | |
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The Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School announced November 15th that The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Bush administration violated the law by ignoring global warming when it set national gas mileage standards for SUVs and pickup trucks. The Court sent the decision back to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for a full environmental review of the gas mileage standards. "This is an important victory in the fight against global warming," said Deborah Sivas, director of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic and the attorney of record on the case. "It’s hard to imagine a federal action more significant to the problem of climate change than one which dictates fuel consumption standards." The ruling, written by Senior Circuit Judge Betty Binns Fletcher, found against the administration’s decision to exempt SUVs and light trucks from fuel economy standards. “That class 2b trucks [light trucks] have never been regulated by NHTSA is not a reason for not regulating them now. We remand to NHTSA to revisit this issue and promulgate average fuel economy standards for these vehicles or to provide a validly reasoned basis for continuing to exclude them from the regulation.” "This ruling is a great help in holding the Bush administration accountable for its refusal to accept the realities of global warming and forcing them to start taking responsible actions to implement the obvious solutions," said Kassie Siegel, climate program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Raising fuel economy standards is one of the most effective actions the government can take to quickly and significantly reduce greenhouse gas pollution, and there is no reason SUVs and light trucks should be exempt from these standards." SOURCE: Stanford Law School |
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