Global warming battle in court
2004-07-22 11:00
New York - US states sued five power companies on Wednesday in a bid to get them to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions suspected of contributing to global warming.
"Global warming threatens our health, our economy, our natural resources and our children's future," New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said.
"Others are taking action to reduce emissions and these companies could also do so by building cleaner energy sources."
In the first such suit of its kind, the plaintiffs are pushing for the power companies to reduce CO2 emissions by between one to three percent per year for 10 years.
The suit invokes a federal public nuisance law and cites the damage to public health, the economy, and the environment from heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions.
It does not seek financial damages.
In addition to New York City, the states of California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin, have signed on to the suit.
Call to dismiss suit
Named in the suit are American Electric Power Company, the Southern Company, Tennessee Valley Authority, Xcel Energy Inc and Cinergy Corporation.
Together, the five power companies own or operate 174 fossil fuel burning power plants in 20 states that emit some 650 million tons of carbon dioxide each year - almost a quarter of the US utility industry's annual carbon dioxide emissions and about 10% of the nation's total, according to the states.
Thomas Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group representing privately-held power companies, called on the court to dismiss the suit.
"Climate policy should be fashioned by policymakers - with due consideration to environmental, energy and economic implications - not by lawyers in the courtroom," he said.
"We hope the court will dismiss the lawsuit and allow policymakers to set national energy and environmental policy."
The US Chamber of Commerce also said the suit amounted to an attempt to circumvent federal policymaking.
"This is a blatant end-run around the Congress and federal and state regulatory agencies," said Thomas Donohue, president of the chamber of commerce.
"Our country's energy and environmental policies should be made by elected officials, not lawyers and judges in a courtroom."