American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut

In an 8-0 decision authored by Justice Ginsburg, the court dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that federal common law in this area was displaced by the Clean Air Act. The Court found that Congress had entrusted EPA in the first instance to decide how greenhouse gases should be regulated, and that it was not for the federal courts to issue their own rules. A blog entry analyzing the decision is available <a href="https://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2011/06/20/todays-supreme-court-decision-in-aep-v-connecticut/">here</a>.

The federal government, on behalf of the Tennessee Valley Authority, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Second Circuit decision allowing several states to continue with their public nuisance lawsuit against several utility companies for their greenhouse gas emissions. According to the government, courts should not adjudicate such general grievances absent statutory authority, particularly since EPA had begun regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. A blog entry analyzing the claims raised by TVA and American Electric Power Co. in their briefs is available <a href="http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2011/02/15/aep-v-connecticut-a-comparison-of-the-briefs-filed-by-the-defendant-electric-utilities/">here</a>.

The Second Circuit vacated a lower court decision and reinstated a lawsuit by eight states and New York City against six large electric power generators that sought to limit the generators’ greenhouse gas emissions by claiming that these emissions contributed to the public nuisance of climate change. In 2005, the district court dismissed the lawsuit, holding that the claims represented “non-judiciable political questions.” The Second Circuit reversed, holding that although Congress has enacted laws affecting air pollution, none of those laws has displaced federal common law. The court stated that there may be a time where federal laws and regulations preempt the field of common law nuisance, but that this had not yet occurred.