Nov 30th 2006
From The Economist print edition

A  WHEN the subject is global warming, the villain is usually America. Although it produces a quarter of the greenhouse gases that are heating up the planet, it refuses to regulate them. When other countries agreed on an international treaty to do so--he Kyoto protocol--America failed to ratify it. But not all American officialdom is happy with the federal government's stance. In fact, 12 states disagree so fiercely that they are suing to force it to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. The Supreme Court heard argument in the case on November 29th. The outcome will not be known for months, but the political wind seems to be shifting in favour of firmer action to counter climate change.

B  The Clean Air Act charges the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with regulating air pollution from vehicles. But the EPA argues that Congress did not intend to include CO2 under that heading, and that to do so would extend the EPA's authority to an unreasonable extent. Furthermore, it contends that regulating emissions would not do good unless all or most other countries did the same. That is in keeping with the policies of President George Bush, who opposes mandatory curbs on emissions and believes that any international accord on global warming should apply to all countries--unlike the Kyoto protocol, which exempts poor ones, including big polluters such as China and India. Ten states, among them gas-guzzling Texas and car-making Michigan, also back the EPA.来源：考试大