Posted: 07/21/2004
State AGs Take Global Warming Into Their Own Hands
Lawsuit Has More To Do With Economics Than Science, Says NCPA
July 21, 2004 – In an audacious attempt to set national energy policy, Attorneys General representing eight states and New York City are expected today to announce a joint lawsuit against five of the nation’s largest electric utilities under the guise of curbing global warming. Experts from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) say this end-around the legislative process has more to do with ambition and economics than science.
“Usually it is a state’s legislature or the U.S. Congress that sets policies through the democratic process, not lawyers in closed courtrooms,” said NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. “The fact is Congress, not states Attorneys General, is charged with regulating interstate commerce and is on record as rejecting greenhouse gas energy mandates.”
According to a draft press release, attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, as well as New York City’s corporation counsel will file a public nuisance lawsuit today in federal court in Manhattan against American Electric Power Co., Southern Co., the Tennessee Valley Authority, Xcel Energy Inc. and Cinergy Corp., demanding that they cut carbon dioxide emissions, which they contend is causing global warming. In the suit, the AGs will assert carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by increasing efficiency at coal-burning plants, switching from coal to cleaner burning fuels, investing in energy conservation, and using renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.
“To satisfy traditional notions of nuisance, CO2 would have to pose a health threat, which it does not at any foreseeable level,” said Burnett. “CO2 is a naturally occurring gas, not a pollutant.”
Burnett also noted that many of the states involved in the suit have already implemented high cost, “green” energy mandates demanded by the suit, making their states less attractive to new business investment. “This is merely an attempt to level the economic playing field by forcing the rest of the nation to adopt their high cost energy mandates,” said Burnett.