American Electric Power Company, Inc., et al., Petitioners v. Connecticut et al (564 U.S. 410)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 20, 2011 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 564 U.S. 410 · 131 S. Ct. 2527
- Decided
- June 20, 2011
- Term
- October Term 2010
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. We address in this opinion the question whether the plaintiffs (several States, the city of New York, and three private land trusts) can maintain federal common-law public nuisance claims against carbon-dioxide emitters (four private power companies and the federal Tennessee Valley Authority). As relief, the plaintiffs ask for a decree setting carbon-dioxide emissions for each defendant at an initial cap, to be further reduced annually. The Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency action the Act authorizes, we hold, displace the claims the plaintiffs seek to pursue. H In Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U. S. 497 (2007), this Court held that the Clean Air Act, 69 Stat. 322, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 7401 et seq., authorizes federal regulation of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. “[Naturally present in the atmosphere and . . . also emitted by human activities,” greenhouse gases are so named because they “trap . . . heat that would otherwise escape from the [Earth’s] atmosphere, and thus form the greenhouse effect that helps keep the Earth warm enough for life.” 74 Fed. Reg. 66499 (2009). Massachusetts held that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) had misread the Clean Air Act when it denied a rulemaking petition seeking controls on greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles.…
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