High Court Rejects Greenhouse Gas "Nuisance" Suit

A unanimous Supreme Court said Monday that states cannot ask federal courts to limit power companies’ carbon dioxide emissions under the theory that the emissions are a “nuisance.” Several northeastern states had claimed the gases cause global temperatures to rise, threatening ecosystems as well as other harms.

The Court recognized that there have been lawsuits in the past where states have used federal common law to stop one state from dumping garbage or otherwise polluting another state’s air and water, but said that a 2007 Supreme Court decision giving the EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gases means that it is now up to the EPA, not federal courts, to set limits on emissions.

The states filed their lawsuits in 2004, when the EPA was arguing it did not have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases, but the Court said that its 2007 ruling meant that the EPA now has exclusive authority over the emissions.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the opinion in the case of American Electric Power v. Connecticut.