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The Supreme Court's ruling yesterday forcing U.S. EPA to consider regulating greenhouse gases should quickly ripple down to related legal challenges, a key attorney in the case said today.
Lower courts have delayed ruling on several climate lawsuits in anticipation of the court's verdict in Massachusetts v. EPA, which revolved in part around whether the Clean Air Act applies to regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. But the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling removes the roadblocks to resolving those cases, Sierra Club attorney David Bookbinder said.
Parties in one delayed case, the automakers' challenge to a Vermont law adopting California's strict vehicle emissions standards, is going to trial tomorrow in U.S. District Court in Vermont. Judge William Sessions has called a hearing there on the implications of the Supreme Court verdict.
Environmentalists "will argue that the Supreme Court decision removes the case for the automakers' claims and the suit should be dismissed," said Bookbinder, who is an attorney in the Vermont case and also worked on Massachusetts v. EPA
Similar lawsuits are pending in California, Rhode Island and other states. In a statement yesterday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said he hoped the Supreme Court verdict would prompt quick movement in the California case, which had been stayed in anticipation of the Massachusetts ruling (E&ENews PM, April 2).
Meanwhile, California has a separate nuisance lawsuit pending against the "Big Six" automakers, alleging that the firms are creating a public nuisance with their greenhouse gas emissions. Judge Martin Jenkins of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California heard oral arguments in the case last month.
Bookbinder also predicted a quick resolution for two other cases: two consolidated lawsuits in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that allege EPA failed to regulate carbon dioxide from new coal-fired power plants and industrial boilers, and a nuisance lawsuit brought by New York and other Northeastern states against energy companies over their GHG emissions.
"On coke ovens, what will happen is that EPA will almost certainly ask for a voluntary remand back to the agency on the ground that their one reason for not regulating CO2 from power plants is now gone," Bookbinder said of the consolidated cases, New York v. EPA and Coke Oven Environmental Task Force v. EPA.
Meanwhile, a federal district court judge threw out the nuisance suit, Connecticut v. American Electric Power, in September 2005, but an appeal before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City is still pending (Greenwire, Nov. 27, 2006).
"The 2nd Circuit has been sitting on that case," Bookbinder said. "They'll now at least issue a decision."
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