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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week against Connecticut and other states who wanted the court to compel power companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As WNPR’s Nancy Cohen reports, the Supreme Court says it’s the E.P.A.’s job to regulate global warming pollution.
The court ruled eight to zero that states can’t use public nuisance law to force electric power companies to reduce and cap pollution that causes global warming. Public nuisance law is based on the idea that if someone pollutes a river upstream, they’d be creating a public nuisance downstream. This case, originally brought in 2004 by eight states claimed that five electric power companies burning coal in one part of the country were creating greenhouse gas pollution in other states. The case was brought during the Bush Administration before the E.P.A. initiated efforts to regulate global warming pollution
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen says the decision is disappointing, but the lawsuit helped move the ball forward
“The good news is by bringing a case like this we created an atmosphere that pushed the federal government into doing what it had not done before, which is start to regulate this important area of greenhouse emissions.”
American Electric Power, one of the country’s largest electric generators issued a statement saying it’s pleased with the court’s decision which “ensures that power generators... can continue to operate in accordance with environmental regulations without the threat of incurring substantial costs defending against climate change litigation.”
