The so called green movement can claim victory in the Supreme Courts latest ruling, with one lone, sane dissenter represented by Judge Scalia. At this rate consumers will not have to worry about new car warranties or maybe even automobiles at all, we’ll be back in horse and buggies.

“Justice Antonin Scalia ridiculed the majority decision. By the majority’s reasoning, “it follows that everything airborne, from Frisbees to flatulence, qualifies as an ‘air pollutant,'” he wrote in his dissent.

Chief Justice John Roberts filed a dissent noting that U.S. automakers’ emissions could be swamped by increases in other countries and that there is simply too little connection between autos and what might happen a century from now.

He characterized vehicle emissions as playing a “bit part” in what the petitioners who brought the case “describe as a 150-year global phenomenon.”

U.S. automobiles account for 6 percent of global man-made carbon dioxide emissions — and 4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

Vehicles emit 315 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the United States each year — about 20 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.

The Alliance of Automotive Manufacturers, a trade group that represents General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG and Toyota Motor Corp., among others, said Congress should adopt economy-wide greenhouse gas regulations.

The automakers “believe that there needs to be a national, federal, economy-wide approach to addressing greenhouse gases,” said Dave McCurdy, president of the trade association.

Mike Stanton, president of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, acknowledged how fast the debate is moving. “There’s growing momentum to regulate greenhouse gases,” he said. “Whether Congress can agree on a proper course of action is something else.”
(Source)