AEP v. Connecticut—Global Warming Litigation and Beyond

摘要

On June 21, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court in American Electric Power (AEP) v. Connecticut" held that the Clean Air Act (CAA),~2 and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions it authorized, displaced any federal common-law right to seek abatement of carbon dioxide (CO_2) emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants. The widely anticipated decision was important, because it clarified the court's approach to legislative displacement and dismissed federal common-law public nuisance claims. This decision also affirmed the CAA's decisionmak-ing process in creating public policy: the Act (1) authorizes EPA to use its expertise in promulgating rules, but (2) allows stakeholders to challenge those rules in federal court if they believe that EPA failed to act, was too stringent in its rulemaking, or was not stringent enough.