Court Reinstates Suit to Reduce Utility Carbon Emissions
New York City joined eight states in bringing a lawsuit against utility companies.
Step by step, American utilities are being prodded by civic action, legal suits, new market trends, and science to reduce the carbon pollution from their fossil fuel plants. The latest step came this week when a U.S. Appeals Court reinstated a lawsuit by eight states and the city of New York against five U.S. utilities over their carbon dioxide emissions. The lawsuit had been dismissed in October 2005 by a U.S. District Court, which said the issue was a political question for Congress or the President, not a question for the judiciary.
The appellate ruling by the 2nd Circuit in New York said the original judge erred in dismissing the complaints. The suit asked the utilities to cut emissions by 3 percent annually for the next 10 years.
The states bringing the complaints were California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
"Our goal is not money damages, but a change in company practices to stem the pollution and safeguard our environment and economy," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement.
The lawsuit against American Electric Power Co Inc, Southern Co, Xcel Energy Inc, Cinergy Corp and the Tennessee Valley Authority public power system claimed that their greenhouse gas emissions were a public nuisance and caused irreparable harm to property. The companies are five of the largest carbon dioxide emitters in the country.
Across the country, fossil-fueled power plants generate about 40 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions.
Natural Resources Defense Council Climate Policy Director David Doniger, in his blog, responded to the lawsuit’s reinstatement by writing that three pathways are now available to curb greenhouse gas pollution. The best is for Congress to pass legislation.
The second pathway is through the current Clean Air Act and a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that carbon emissions must be regulated if they pose a danger to public health or welfare.
And the third pathway, because of this decision, is for citizens to seek their day in court, in the absence of other protections.
-- Suzanne Bopp
