As a slight to a Congress unable to compromise over carbon legislation and a Presidential administration hellbent on preventing regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, twelve states and Washington, D.C. have banded together to sue the Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from oil refineries.  

The lawsuit, led by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, aims to prompt the EPA into regulating global warming emissions from oil refineries by alleging that not doing so violates the Clean Air Act. 

"The EPA's refusal to control pollution from oil refineries is the latest example of the Bush administration's do-nothing policy on global warming," Cuomo said in a press release.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of suits against the once-revered enviro-agency. A similar coalition of states, led by former New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, sued the EPA in April of 2006 for failing to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

Earlier this year, California sued the EPA over its failure to issue a waiver allowing the state to place tougher regulations on automobile emissions, particularly greenhouse gases. In the wake of the lawsuit's findings, a congressional investigation revealed that the White House exerted its influence on EPA administrator Johnson to ensure the EPA rejected California's petition for a waiver. 

Even for a litigious nation like the US, the series of suits seems a bit excessive, but they represent battles in the war over regulating greenhouse gases that is raging like a California wildfire. Boiled down to its most basic principals, the Bush administration is fighting on all fronts to block government regulation of greenhouse gases, favoring instead market-driven and voluntary self-regulation.

In Congress, even with a majority, Democrats have been unable to pass any laws regulating greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, governors, mayors, and attorneys who favor regulating such emissions have attempted to make the courts do the job that Congress can't and the White House won't: expand the provisions of the Clean Air Act to include regulations of greenhouse gases. 

Whether or not they are successful may not soon matter. A President Obama or a President McCain would set out to create a mechanism for regulating these emissions. In the meantime, the Bush Administration is fighting inevitability tooth and nail.

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