Supreme Court Blocks Climate Change Suit Against Utilities

On June 20, 2011, the U. S. Supreme Court issued its decision in American Electric Power Co., Inc. et al. v. Connecticut et al., 564 U.S. ____ (2011). In this closely-watched case, eight states and three land trusts sought to impose limits on greenhouse gas emissions from five major electric power companies on the grounds that those emissions were a violation of federal common law because they contributed to global warming. The Supreme Court held that any federal common law right to seek to control such emissions judicially was displaced by the Clean Air Act and the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions provided therein to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In an 8-0 decision authored by Justice Ginsburg, the Supreme Court overturned the Second Circuit's ruling that the Clean Air Act did not displace federal common law on this issue. The Second Circuit's decision was based in part on the fact that the EPA had not yet promulgated its rules