Three green groups have filed a suit in a US district court alleging that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is dawdling over their 1999 petition on the use of the Clean Air Act to curb vehicular pollution. The EPA is not doing enough to protect the environment, contend environmental pressure groups International Centre for Technology Assessment, Sierra Club and Greenpeace.

The lawsuit states that no action has been taken, even though federal agencies are required to do so "within a reasonable time'. Activists feel that us President George Bush is reluctant to act on global warming despite acknowledging its threat. Bush withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol on the pretext that it would harm the us economy.