
The fragile environmental coalitions cleaning up the Black Sea oil spill
This article by Angelina Davydova, editor of Bellona’s Ecology & Rights magazine, first appeared in The Moscow Times. The oil spill in ...
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Publish date: November 22, 2009
Written by: Charles Digges
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Over the past several weeks, Circuit Courts covering Mississippi and Connecticut have allowed suits against major US utilities and industries to proceed, as the courts have ruled the plaintiffs have due cause to link damages they have suffered to climate change produced by oil refineries and coal fired power plants.
The moves by the court are especially noteworthy, as they represent the first time the American judiciary has had to consider tracing actual damages caused by climate change back to their source.
In its decision to advance the Mississippi case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals cited that climate gasses were “fairly traceable” as probable cause to continue litigation against the emitting corporations, overruling the First Circuit court, who had ruled that climate change was a political, not a legal issue.
In a separate case, the United States’ Second Circuit Court of appeals allowed the case of Connecticut vs. AEP (American Electric Power) to move forward. This decision allows nuisance claims filed by several states against coal burning utilities to proceed.
The issue will be especially poignant in the state of Mississippi, where a group of 12 homeowners are seeking damages from 33 energy companies, including ExxonMobile and coal giant Peabody Energy, electric utilities and other conglomerates who they say were responsible for contributing to greenhouse gas emissions that caused 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, which nearly five years later still has the US Gulf Coast reeling to clean up damages.
Photo: Courtesy of Peggy Groves for Bellona Web
The case therefore brings with it a lot of baggage for those whose lives were moved back to square one by the storm.
This article by Angelina Davydova, editor of Bellona’s Ecology & Rights magazine, first appeared in The Moscow Times. The oil spill in ...
The following speech was given by Bellona nuclear expert Dmitry Gorchakov at the Arctic Frontiers conference, which was in session this week in Troms...
Social media are ablaze after Bellona founder Frederic Hauge met Motvind’s Eivind Salen on Norwegian national broadcaster NRK’s Debatten program last night.
"Maritime transport along the Northern Sea Route remains a bad idea. Even with a warmer climate, cold, wind and darkness will define the Arctic winter," said Bellona's Senior Adviser Sigurd Enge to a packed hall at the Arctic Frontiers conference.