2007年VOA标准英语-Environmentalists Cheer US Supreme Court Ruling

（单词翻译）

By Paul Sisco
Washington, D.C.
04 April 2007
 
Watch Global Warming report

Environmentalists are elated by a U.S. Supreme¹ Court ruling on pollution by automobiles⁴.  They say eventually the ruling could prompt the government to take more direct action to reduce greenhouse gases that most scientists blame for global warming.  VOA's Paul Sisco reports.

 
US Supreme Court
The United States' highest court says the government's Environmental Protection Agency can and should regulate carbon-dioxide and other pollutants⁵ that cars produce.  Until the Supreme Court stepped in, the EPA had declined to set limits on automobile³ exhaust gases, widely seen as a major factor in global warming. 

The ruling is a rebuff for the Bush administration and a major victory for environmentalists.  David Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense⁶ Council says, "This opinion is a huge hammer blow in favor of doing something about global warming.  The opinion says that the Bush administration has basically gotten the law wrong."

The environmental agency has contended it lacks the authority to regulate new cars' gas emissions⁷, but in a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court said such action is a federal responsibility.  The ruling notes that U.S. vehicles are by no means the biggest source of atmospheric⁸ pollution, but the billions of tons of carbon dioxide they produce are a "meaningful" part of the global-warming trend.

"We think this decision is an overdue⁹ wake-up call," said Hawkins.  "We think it will force action."

 
US Senator Barbara Boxer¹⁰
The court ruling does not order any specific regulatory action, but legal analysts¹¹ say it opens the door for future cases that may do so.  Senator Barbara Boxer says lawmakers on Capitol Hill will be watching the administration closely.

"If they don't do what they need to do, and they have the power to do, we will do it with them or for them," the Democratic senator from California said.

The government had questioned whether it was authorized¹² to regulate automobile emissions, but White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said, "Now that the Supreme Court has settled that matter for us, we are going to have to analyze¹³ it and see where we go from there."

The auto² industry says emissions regulations will take years to implement¹⁴ and could raises the cost of every new vehicle by thousands of dollars.  "Prices will go up and, in the end, it is not the companies [but] the consumers that will be paying more," said Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Scientists working with the United Nations are preparing to release a major report on the impact of global climate change, following up their recent finding that human activity and the burning of fossil fuels is warming the planet.