North Dakota Joins Lawsuit Challenging Federal Government’s Authority To Regulate Carbon
This was announced last week, and didn’t really get a lot of attention in the North Dakota media:
A federal district court in New York had dismissed the Connecticut case, but the Second District Court of Appeals reinstated it.
The appeals court acknowledged that a broad solution to global warming “arguably falls within the purview of the political branches,” in essence, Congress and the White House. …
“A decision by a single federal court concerning a common law of nuisance cause of action… does not establish a national or international emissions policy,” the court said. “Nor could a court set across-the-board domestic emissions standards or require any unilateral, mandatory emissions reductions over entities not party to the suit.”
Indiana’s brief seeking to overturn the appellate decision argues that it would lead to more litigation that could eventually apply to any businesses that emit carbon gases.
“The theory of liability being advanced here has no limiting principle,” Indiana’s brief said. “It would permit federal courts to impose CO2 (carbon dioxide) emission limits on any entity in the country, and one might reasonably expect that the major economic actors of each state, not to mention state government entities themselves, would be on a list of potential defendants.”
In addition to Connecticut, the states suing to limit the power plants’ emissions are New York, New Jersey, California, Iowa, Vermont, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
With Indiana and Kansas, states urging the Supreme Court to dismiss the suit include Arkansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, Hawaii, North Dakota and Wyoming.
Good for Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem for joining North Dakota with these other states in challenging the federal government on this issue. We need more push back against federal encroachment on this and many other issues, and Stenehjem’s decision to join this case (as well as his decision to join the multi-state challenge to Obamacare) is a good one.
Tags: cap and trade, carbon, epa, North Dakota News, Wayne Stenehjem
