From the BBC
US 'must regulate car pollution' The highest court in the US has ruled that the government was wrong to say it did not have the power to regulate exhaust gases from new cars and trucks.
Twelve states and 13 campaign groups brought the landmark case against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The US Supreme Court said the EPA had offered "no reasoned explanation" for refusing to regulate carbon dioxide and other harmful gas emissions from cars.
The ruling was close, with five judges voting in favour and four dissenting.
The justices had been asked to consider whether carbon dioxide (CO2) should be defined as a pollutant and therefore subject to a law regulating emissions.
The states and environmental groups who brought the case said the US government had a legal duty, under the Clean Air Act, to restrict greenhouse gas emissions.
The EPA had argued that the 1970 Act did not give it the powers to impose limits because CO2 was not deemed to be a pollutant.
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