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The San Francisco Chronicle (April 3, 2007) reports on the effects that this recent ruling might have on California's efforts to reduce the c02 emissions of automobiles:

"The campaign led by California to combat global warming at the state level took a giant step forward Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration's hands-off approach to climate change and pushed the government toward regulation of greenhouse gases.

The 5-4 ruling, the most important environmental decision the court has issued in many years, clears the way for current and future federal administrations to set mandatory limits on motor vehicle emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases -- a leading cause of planet-wide temperature increases, according to an overwhelming majority of scientists.

The court's interpretation of the Clean Air Act, the 1970 law that authorizes regulation of air pollutants, also appears to help California and other states that are seeking to bypass the Bush administration and limit the emissions on their own.

State Attorney General Jerry Brown said that the court, by ruling that the Clean Air Act applies to emissions that cause climate change, strengthened California's defense of its groundbreaking law requiring new vehicles sold in the state to meet gradually tighter standards for greenhouse gases, starting with the 2009 models.

The ruling 'makes it very clear that California has a right to regulate greenhouse gases,'' since the federal government has historically allowed the state to exceed federal standards in regulating air pollutants, Brown said at a news conference.

You can read the whole article here:

Ruling helps California battle global warming