Yesterday, a federal appeals court denied a request by states and environmental organizations to order the Environmental Protection Agency to respond to the Supreme Court’s landmark global warming decision issued more than a year ago. The groups made the request to the appeals court in April, seeking to require EPA action on a longstanding petition to limit greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. In March 2007, the Supreme Court held that EPA had illegally refused to limit those emissions. Earthjustice is co-counsel for Sierra Club in the case.

The following statement is from David Baron, managing attorney at Earthjustice’s Washington, D.C. office:

“Although we’re disappointed the court did not order EPA to act right now, we’ll continue to push EPA hard for swift adoption of strong limits on greenhouse gases — and we’ll return to court again if EPA foot-dragging continues for too long.”

“This administration is fiddling while the planet melts. Instead of adopting the real limits urgently needed to cap greenhouse gases, EPA is planning to only issue a list of options for discussion. Meanwhile, the threats from global warming are mounting at an alarming rate.

“The delay here is really inexcusable. According to a House committee investigation, a detailed EPA proposal to address motor vehicle greenhouse gases was sent to the White House last December, but has not seen the light of day since. There simply is no justification for this delay. The time to act on global warming and save our planet is now.”