"Global Warming" Debate Should Be Resolved by Congress, not the Supreme Court
WASHINGTON–On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Massachusetts v. EPA. Filed by a group of states and environmental groups, the case asks the justices to decide whether the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate American car makers' contributions to "global warming."
Cato scholars have filed two amicus briefs on the EPA's behalf, one addressing the scientific claims of global warming alarmists and the other addressing the legal questions in the case. The first, science-oriented brief, authored by Cato senior fellow Patrick J. Michaels and filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, questions the notion that global warming will exert a net negative impact on human health and welfare.
"Our brief repeatedly stresses that no comprehensive analysis of the net costs and/or benefits of reasonably projected climate change has ever been performed", said Michaels. "Regulation without a commensurate basis in scientific fact is hardly what our founders, such as Thomas Jefferson, would have wanted".
Cato's brief on the legal issues, filed on behalf of the Cato Institute by Cato lawyers Tim Lynch and Mark Moller, argues that federal law provides no mandate for global warming regulation and that the Constitution requires petitioners to direct their broad complaints about global warming to Congress, not courts. Cato's brief is authored by environmental law professor Jonathan Adler and joined by law professors James L. Huffman and Andrew Morriss.
NOTE: No one should regulate the "global warming" legislation, as "global warming" is a myth