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  4. Supreme Court Rejects Common-Law GHG Lawsuit, Reaffirms EPA's Authority

Supreme Court Rejects Common-Law GHG Lawsuit, Reaffirms EPA's Authority

Date: June 20, 2011

Source: News Room

The US Supreme Court ruled that regulating greenhouse gases (GHGs) is the province of US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as dictated by the Clean Air Act (CAA). The court did so by unanimously rejecting, with Justice Sonia Sotamayor recusing herself, a lawsuit in which several states and other parties were seeking to use public nuisance litigation to force electric utilities to reduce their emissions. In an opinion written by Justice Ruth Ginsburg, the court said that the Clean Air Act (CAA) supersedes common law, overturning a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (on which Justice Sotamayor sat at the time) holding that federal common law provides the plaintiffs with an avenue to seek the implementation of GHG emission controls on coal-fired power plants. The plaintiffs comprised eight states, New York City, and three non-profit land trusts, which had filed their lawsuits against five operators of electric power plants that, according to the plaintiffs, are the largest emitters of GHGs in the United States. CAA "provides a means to seek limits on emissions of carbon dioxide from domestic power plants—the same relief the plaintiffs seek by invoking federal common law," Justice Ginsburg wrote. "There is no room for a parallel track." In issuing the ruling, the Supreme Court affirmed its decision in 2007, when in Massachusetts v. EPA it first upheld the agency's authority to regulate GHG emissions under CAA.

To read the ruling, visit: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/10-174.pdf.

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