ABSTRACT
On April 2, 2007, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Massachusetts v. EPA.1 It is regarded by many observers as the most significant and far-reaching decision on an environmental issue in the Court’s history. The decision came amid a flurry of lawsuits filed in federal courts around the country over the past several years addressing climate change in particular and, more generally, the myriad air pollution and energy issues related to that phenomenon. The lawsuits reflect impatience on the part of state governments, the plaintiffs in most of these cases, with the federal government’s reluctance to address global warming in the face of the overwhelming consensus of scientists that it represents a potentially catastrophic threat. State plaintiffs have been further supported by the general public, who have become increasingly unsettled about global climate change by an uncommon number of severe weather events and a steady stream of media stories about its other potential consequences. The time for some definitive action was, as it is phrased in legal circles, “ripe.”
