A federal appeals court has clearly smashed any hope of avoiding EPA’s various greenhouse gas (GHG) emission control rules.

The agency’s regulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other GHGs that contribute to climate change is entirely legal and based on sound science.

The court unanimously ruled that EPA properly used the Clean Air Act to declare CO2 is a “pollutant” that endangers human health.

Industry groups and several states had argued that EPA overstepped its regulatory authority when it regulated GHGs released by the largest industrial facilities – those emitting more than 100,000 metric tons of GHGs a year.

But the court said EPA’s reading of the law is “unambiguously correct.”

Climate skeptics dismissed

The court also ridiculed climate change skeptics who claim EPA improperly relied on the National Academy of Sciences and a United Nations panel to justify its rules.

“This is how science is conducted,” the court said.

For more on the court’s ruling, go here.