Ohio Joins California Climate Plan Opponents In US Supreme Court Plea

By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The state of Ohio on Tuesday joined oil companies and business groups asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse decisions that underpin California's ambitious plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.

The Midwest state joined Valero's Diamond Alternative Energy and other plaintiffs in challenging Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority under the Clean Air Act to grant waivers that allow California to set greenhouse gas emissions limits that are stricter than the federal government's, after a spate of Supreme Court rulings that weaken U.S. agency authority.

"The Golden State is not the golden child. Yet in the Clean Air Act, Congress elevated California above all the other States by giving to the Golden State alone the power to pass certain environmental laws," the Ohio plaintiffs wrote in their petition to have the nation's top court hear its case.

Ohio's attorney general, who brought the case, and the EPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Valerie Volcovici and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler)