A federal judge yesterday postponed a lawsuit challenging California's law that limits tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases, opting to wait until the Supreme Court decides whether federal law covers carbon dioxide emissions.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii agreed to a request from state and environmental to delay the trial, but he also issued an injunction preventing California from enforcing its law without permission from the U.S. EPA.

In the Supreme Court case, Massachusetts v. EPA, 12 states including California are challenging EPA's 2003 decision that carbon dioxide is not considered a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, which regulates other industrial emissions, such as ozone, sulfur dioxide or lead. The court is expected to make a decision by June (Greenwire, Aug. 31, 2006).

Ray Ludwiszewski, an attorney for the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, said Ishii's ruling was not unfavorable to his clients, who brought the lawsuit in California. "We wanted a final ruling out of the court on a number of grounds," he said. "But it's hard to get too upset when you have an injunction against the regulations."

Natural Resources Defense Council attorney David Doniger said the judge sided with the defendants as well. "We urged the judge not to go through a three- or four-week trial and make a decision that might be potentially out of sync with where the Supreme Court is going," he said (Jane Kay, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 17). -- DK