By the narrowest of margins, Congress has passed the "cap and trade" energy bill which will bring in tough new greenhouse gas emissions standards for US companies. Given that it passed by the narrowest of margins and business opposition, we can expect to see it open up a spate of litigation.
Writing in Forbes earlier this week, Institute for Liberty president Andrew Langer warned of litigation which will tie up the courts for years. And attorneys have told Brian Wingfield at Forbes that there will be masses of litigation with Chamber of Commerce senior vice president William Kovacs warning the Chamber will fight it. "In no instance is this going to go unchallenged,'' Kovacs says. Which means the Environmental Protection Agency, which earlier this year ruled that high concentrations of CO2 and other gases endanger the public health, will be tied up in the courts for the years ahead.
One thing for sure: litigation is going to reshape the politics of climate change. A report from insurer Swiss Re warns that climate change litigation is the new asbestos. Only this time, climate change lawsuits will spread faster than anything we saw with asbestos.
We are already seeing signs of this happening. The Global Climate Law blog lists the cases already happening. And we now have reports that more companies are getting sued for making bogus claims about their products being environmentally friendly.
Climate change will be a lawyers' picnic.
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