In a defeat for the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a US government agency has the power under the clean air law to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming.

The nation’s highest court by a 5-4 vote said the US Environmental Protection Agency “has offered no reasoned explanation” for its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide and other emissions from new cars and trucks that contribute to climate change.

For the first time in 30 years, the US Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to further reduce the amount of lead in the air. While leaded gasoline is history, about 1,300 tons of lead a year is emitted into the air from smelters, iron and steel foundries, and general aviation gasoline, the EPA estimates. Once it is airborne, lead can be inhaled. Or, after it settles out of the air onto surfaces, lead can be ingested – the main route of human exposure. Once in the body, lead is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and can affect many organ systems.

The Environmental Protection Agency is being sued by 18 US states “in an attempt to force it to comply with a Supreme Court ruling in April that found the EPA has authority to regulate vehicle emissions.”

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the current national greenhouse gas inventory, which finds that net overall emissions—factoring in sources and sinks—rose 0.83% in 2005 from 2004 to 6,431.9 Tg CO2e.

The U.S. government ordered toilets to not use more than 1.6 gallons of water for flushing in 1994. Now the EPA’s WaterSense program is “debuting a new generation of high-efficiency toilets Friday in a public “flush-off” in Seattle, is pushing consumers to consider the 1.28-gallon toilet.”

Several U.S. states and environmental groups are expected to ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to “crack down on airline emissions.” Aviation emissions account for up to 12% of the U.S. transportation sector, according to the Chronicle’s citing of EPA numbers.

“Washington joined California and 14 other states Wednesday in suing the federal government for failing to approve stronger regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.”

“In response to EPA’s nationwide challenge issued in December 2006, 53 Fortune 500 companies led by Intel Corporation are now collectively purchasing more than six billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually. These purchases surpassed the goals set by EPA’s Green Power Partnership and equal the avoided carbon dioxide emissions of more than 570 million gallons of gasoline each year or the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power nearly 670,000 average American homes annually.”