Court reinstates pollution suit

America scored a victory against corporate excess yesterday when a federal appeals court reinstated a lawsuit against air pollution by utility companies.

This decision allows numerous states, cities, and land trusts to sue several utilities - including Cinergy, the Cincinnati electric monopoly that has since been taken over by Duke Energy.

This also overturns an outrageous 2005 decision that gutted the lawsuits.

The lawsuits charge that the companies' carbon dioxide emissions contribute to climate change. But the companies have absurdly argued that no court has ever recognized greenhouse gas emissions as a climate change cause.

Look, scientists have.

Do utility corporations think a judge has to rule that 2 plus 2 is 4 in order to make it so? You can bet your bottom dollar that the companies think it doesn't even matter, considering America has only recently emerged from an 8-year-long administration that rejected science almost by reflex.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/science/earth/22carbon.html)