November 22, 2006 1:52PM # Judging Kyoto By [Mark Moller](https://www.cato.org/people/mark-moller) --- SHARE Next Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in *Massachusetts v. EPA,* the blockbuster environmental case of the term. The issue: Does the Clean Air Act, a 1970s-vintage anti-smog statute, require the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions from new American cars? A number of states and enviro groups say “yes!” The EPA–in an exceedingly rare example of administrative self-restraint–says “no.” The stakes? Big: If the petitioners win, American carmakers may face the equivalent of Kyoto global warming standards, imposed by judicial fiat, despite Congress’s umpteen rejections of the Kyoto regime. Cato filed an *amicus* brief on the EPA’s behalf, written by environmental law whiz Jonathan Adler and joined by lawprofs James Huffman and Andrew Morriss. Read it [here](https://www.cato.org/pubs/legalbriefs/ma_v_epa_10-24-06.pdf). We argue that the petitioners lack standing to sue the EPA and also argue, for good measure, that nondelegation principles should counsel against creatively translating the Clean Air Act into a template for federal global warming regulation. Cato’s intrepid Pat Michaels also filed a [brief](http://www.communityrights.org/PDFs/MassBriefs/merits%20respond%20climatologists.pdf), joined by a number of other prominent climatologists, which tackles the dubious scientific claims of the environmental petitioners. For more on the case, and its implications, Professor Adler recently participated in a panel discussion of the case at the American Enterprise Institute, which will be replayed on C‑Span 2 tonight at 6 p.m. However, you can watch the archived video anytime [here](http://www.c-span.org/VideoArchives.asp?z1=&PopupMenu_Name=Judiciary/Courts&CatCodePairs=Issue,JC). ##### Related Tags [Energy and Environment](https://www.cato.org/research/energy-environment), [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).