WARMING RULING COULD HAVE BROAD IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENTAL TORT SUITS

September 22, 2005
A federal judge's decision last week to dismiss a landmark climate change lawsuit because it represented a "political question" could undermine a host of toxic tort claims that courts consider to be political issues, including pending cases dealing with contamination of the fuel additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), environmentalists and some legal experts say. Because of this concern, the plaintiffs in State of Connecticut, et al. v. American Electric Power, et al. are planning an appeal to the U.S...


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