Photo via City Pages
In a surprising turn of events, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with a coalition of US states, New York City, and environmental groups who filed a lawsuit against the biggest coal-burning utilities in the country. The lawsuit charged that the utilities' heavy greenhouse gas emissions were a public nuisance--and the conservative, Bush-appointed court agrees. Now, experts are saying this opens up a whole new way to fight climate change: by suing the pants off polluters.
It's a landmark case for both environmentalists (happily so) and industry groups (not so much), and court watchers have said that this will certainly herald many more similar public nuisance complaints. And, while nobody believes this will have far-reaching ramifications in the way that cap and trade legislation would, many are gearing up to capitalize on a newly established useful tool. …
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