The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued its decision in State of Connecticut, et al. v. American Electric Power Company Inc., et al. (Case Nos. 05-5104-CV and 05-5119-CV), finding that plaintiffs (several states and land trusts) may sue power companies for the public nuisance of global warming due to emissions of carbon dioxide. From the court's decision, and setting the stage:
In 2004, two groups of Plaintiffs, one consisting of eight States and New York City, and the other consisting of three land trusts (collectively “Plaintiffs”), separately sued the same six electric power corporations that own and operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants in twenty states (collectively “Defendants”), seeking abatement of Defendants’ ongoing contributions to the public nuisance of global warming. Plaintiffs claim that global warming, to which Defendants contribute as the “five largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the United States and . . . among the largest in the world,” Connecticut v. Am. Elec. Power Co., 406 F. Supp. 2d 265, 268 (S.D.N.Y. 2005), by emitting 650 million tons per year of carbon dioxide, is causing and will continue to cause serious harms affecting human health and natural resources.
They explain that carbon dioxide acts as a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, and that as a result of this trapped heat, the earth’s temperature has risen over the years and will continue to rise in the future. Pointing to a “clear scientific consensus” that global warming has already begun to alter the natural world, Plaintiffs predict that it “will accelerate over the coming decades unless action is taken to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.” (Pages 3-4.)
Interested yet?
Reversing the lower court's dismissal of the complaint, the court of appeals held that the political question doctrine did not bar adjudication of the plaintiffs' claims; that the plaintiffs had standing to pursue their claims; and that the federal common law of nuisance governed and was adequately stated in the complaint (among other things).
Expect quite a bit of commentary!