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Alerts
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ALERT: Added Impetus for Climate Change Legislation
November 25, 2009
Click here for the full PDF.
As noted in our November 6th Energy/Environmental Alert on the “Impact of Recent Litigation on the Climate Change Debate,” two recent federal appellate court decisions offer the potential for substantial impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters and their insurers. In Connecticut v. American Electric Power Co., No. 05-5104 CV, September 21, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that public entities and public interest groups could sue major GHG emitters to force them to ratchet down their emissions. Shortly thereafter, the Fifth Circuit, in Comer v. Murphy Oil Co., No. 07-60756, October 16, 2009, ruled that private plaintiffs had standing to sue the GHG emitters for damages suffered by them allegedly as a result of climate change. Both decisions merely permitted plaintiffs to attempt to prove their cases and are not final judgments. Nonetheless, the low bar that they set for standing could make summary judgment unlikely in future cases. Since GHG regulation and/or legislation appear likely in the reasonably near term, these cases also create the specter of emitters being subject to both federal compliance obligations and liability under federal common law. This double-edged liability exposure creates the potential for unintended adverse consequences.
Click here to download full alert [PDF].
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