Virginia's challenge to EPA struck down by appeals court

June 28, 2012

WASHINGTON, District of Columbia: A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has denied a legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency's greenhouse gas regulations. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, along with representatives from other states and energy industry groups, had challenged regulations aimed at reducing the gases blamed for global warming. The opinion, which was unsigned, stated that the EPA was "unambiguously correct" in setting greenhouse gas emission levels, and that "This is how science works...EPA is not required to re-prove the existence of the atom every time it approaches a scientific question." At the heart of the challenge were the EPA's 2009 "endangerment findings," which found that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health. Cuccinelli believes the data used to formulate the endangerment finding were unreliable, unscientific and flawed. Cuccinelli said he will attempt to take the case before the United States Supreme Court.