By Korey Silverman-Roati Background Starting in 2017, cities, counties, and states across the United States have filed claims (see here and here) in state courts against fossil fuel companies seeking redress for the climate harms their products have caused. Many of these cases asserted nuisance and other tort law claims. […]
Common Law
By Jessica Wentz On December 20, the City of Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz County filed separate lawsuits in California Superior Court seeking to hold 29 fossil fuel companies accountable for their contribution to climate change. In doing so, they joined five other Californian local governments that have filed similar […]
By Adam Riedel, CCCL Associate Director and Fellow How and to what extent predicted future, physical impacts from climate change should be considered in environmental impact reports (EIRs) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has never been entirely clear. A recent California Court of Appeal decision invalidated CEQA Guidelines […]
By Shelley Welton, Deputy Director and Fellow The lawsuit of Alec L. and several other young climate change activists was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today. In Alec L. et al. v. Lisa P. Jackson et al., 11-cv-02235 (D.D.C. 2012), five teenagers and children […]
by Michael B. Gerrard Director, Center for Climate Change Law Here is my instant analysis of the decision (PDF) just issued by the Supreme Court in American Electric Power v. Connecticut, the case in which several states and others sought a court order requiring several large electric utilities to reduce […]
On May 4, 2011 a group of five teenager plaintiffs, together with two non-profit environmental groups, filed suit against the federal government in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, in San Francisco. The complaint (PDF), seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, contains only one cause of action: […]