A coalition of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit challenging what it called the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) failure to address greenhouse gas emissions from ocean-going ships, aircraft and nonroad vehicles and engines used in industrial operations.

The filing came one day after the US Senate voted to uphold the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases via the rejection on 10 June of US Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska), “disapproval resolution” (S.J. Res. 26) to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. (Earlier post.)

The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in the District of Columbia by Earthjustice and the Western Environmental Law Center on behalf of Oceana, Friends of the Earth, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, and the International Center for Technology Assessment.

Together, aircraft, ship and nonroad vehicles and engines are responsible for 24% of US mobile source greenhouse gas emissions, the coalition said, and emit approximately 290,000 tons of soot every year. Pollution from these sources is projected to grow rapidly over coming decades.

The shipping industry is a major contributor to global warming pollution. Annual US shipping emissions are equivalent to from 130 million to 195 million cars. These emissions are on track to triple over the next 20 years. It is time for the EPA to issue common sense rules—like requiring fuel efficient cruising speeds—to control the pollution from this important sector.

—Eric Bilsky, Assistant General Counsel, Oceana

The coalition petitioned EPA in late 2007 and early 2008, to determine whether greenhouse gas emissions from marine vessels, aircraft, and nonroad vehicles and engines respectively endanger public health and welfare, and if so, to issue regulations to control greenhouse gas emissions from these sources. EPA has not responded to the petitions.