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John Daley ReportingThis is a fight over greenhouse gas emissions which mostly comes from the exhaust of our vehicles and the burning of coal in our power plants.
"Global warming is melting the ice shelf in Antarctica and rising ocean levels are slowly swallowing up huge chunks of the East Coast."
That's the claim Massachusetts and eleven other states made in the U.S. Supreme Court as they try to force the Environmental Protection Agency to at least consider curbing greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles.
The Bush Administration says there's too much scientific uncertainty about global warming to order carbon dioxide reductions.
Utah and a group of other states agree with that position, and filed a supporting brief.
Mark Shurtleff, Utah Attorney General (R), "Question: Is it real and is it human caused? There is human cause and there are biological causes. Lots of other causes. And I've been one of those who have felt like it was overblown. Greenhouse gas, hole in the ozone all this stuff has been overblown. But I'll tell you what, I'm willing to listen."
One of the nation's top researchers spelled out the dangers at the University of Utah today.
Kevin Trenberth, Head of Climate Analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says global warming is well underway with sharp rises in carbon dioxide and temperatures.
Whatever the court decides could have broad affects for any industry that produces greenhouse gases.
In Utah, 95 percent of our power comes from coal plants.
