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Defendants Win "Round One" Of Climate Change Litigation In United States Supreme Court, Richard O. Faulk, John S. Gray
Defendants Win "Round One" Of Climate Change Litigation In United States Supreme Court, Richard O. Faulk, John S. Gray
Richard Faulk
In American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut (“AEP”), the United States Supreme Court held that federal common law public nuisance claims seeking injunctive relief against emitters of greenhouse gases (“GHG”) were displaced by the Clean Air Act (“CAA”) and EPA’s regulatory implementation of the Act’s provisions. In hindsight, this holding seems an inevitable outgrowth of Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), which held that GHGs are pollutants subject to CAA regulation. Building on that precedent in a unanimous 8-0 opinion, the AEP Court gave the defendant utility companies a clear-cut victory by precluding judicial direct regulation of GHG through …
A Political Question: Public Nuisance, Climate Change And The Courts, Richard O. Faulk, John S. Gray
A Political Question: Public Nuisance, Climate Change And The Courts, Richard O. Faulk, John S. Gray
Richard Faulk
When it comes to climate change regulation, one of the great discussions of our day is whether the political branches of government or the judiciary should lead the way. Is it appropriate or wise to use the crucible of the courtroom to forge standards regarding what emission levels are, and are not, acceptable? In other words, is the use of tort litigation in this context a legitimate judicial exercise, or does the judiciary overstep its bounds by reaching impermissibly into the political sphere? Although the poet’s imagination may dream of leaping to seize an otherwise inaccessible prize, wise jurists know …