U.S. Supreme Court's global warming/ climate 'nuisance' case

The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari earlier this week in two cases – Wal-Mart v. Dukes and American Electric Power v. Connecticut – both of which involve corporate interests and have generated headlines and significant coverage, as ScotusBlog put it. Nabiha Syed’s post has links to a number of those articles from the national press.

In Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the largest employment discrimination case in U.S. history, the Court has agreed to review whether claims by individual employees may be combined as a class action. [ Petition for Certiorari ] [ ScotusBlog ]



American Electric Power Co., Inc. v. Connecticut is of perhaps more proximal interest because, as the Columbus Dispatch reported, it "is a massive environmental suit that seeks to hold coal-fired power plants in the Midwest liable for causing global warming." [ Petition for certiorari ] [ ScotusBlog ]

The essence of the case is that states are saying power companies are contributing to a public nuisance by releasing greenhouse gases into the air, and they therefore should be able to turn to the courts to require those companies to reduce emissions. The power companies, on the other hand, "maintain that the Clean Air Act supplants the federal common law when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions."

ScotusBlog's post Wednesday also noted that "the Court's consideration as to whether states can use the tort theory of public nuisance to regulate carbon dioxide emissions will affect other cases pending around the country on the same issue. In a New York Times article published last Monday morning, Lawrence Hurley mentioned Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil Corp., in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ,yet to be argued, and Comer v. Murphy Oil, which was initially decided in favor of the plaintiffs by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but had the ruling vacated after the court moved to rehear the case but then realized there was no quorum after several judges had to recuse themselves. ( Here ) Kivalina is an Eskimo village of about 400 people that'll have to be relocated allegedly because of the effects of global warming. Hurley also noted North Carolina v. Tennessee Valley Authority as being another case that focuses on an attempt to regulated emissions under state common law -- that case is possibly on its way the Supreme Court, too, after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Tennessee Valley Authority. [ Kivalina complaint ] [ North Carolina’s petition for re-hearing / Decision challenged ]

In 2007, the Supreme Court had ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U. S. 497 (2007) that "the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has abdicated its responsibility under the Clean Air Act to regulate the motor vehicle emissions of four greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide." These cases concern the much larger issue of power plants.