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Obama admin. sides with utilities in Supreme Court case about climate change
The Obama administration sided with major utility companies in a Supreme Court case about climate change on Thursday, angering environmentalists who say that the administration's broad argument could hurt their ability to force reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or even to bring other lawsuits.
Administration officials said the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory moves to restrain carbon dioxide emissions made the lawsuit unnecessary, and the acting solicitor general asked the Supreme Court to return the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.
But environmentalists said that the administration had talked about - but not imposed - limits on emissions from existing power plants.
Moreover, environmental groups said, the government's brief went beyond that, employing arguments that threatened to undercut a basis for legal action that have been used for a century, since Georgia sued over damage a Tennessee copper smelter was inflicting on Georgia's forests.
"We're very angry and very disappointed that they would take this tack," said David Doniger, policy director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, replied that the EPA has been taking "a series of regulatory actions indicating that it's moving forward on greenhouse gases and really making it inappropriate for the courts to step in and take on this issue."