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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #50 on: October 09, 2015, 02:07:48 AM »
First the Netherlands, now Pakistan’s high court comes to defence of climate
A minor revolution in climate justice has just taken place in one of the countries most affected by global warming, reports Le Monde
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/07/pakistan-high-court-comes-to-defence-of-climate
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #51 on: October 21, 2015, 03:24:58 AM »
For the 115th time, Senator Whitehouse speaks on the U.S. Senate floor about the need to act on climate change.  Here, he addresses the need for a civil RICO investigation of Exxon, and its outward denial of damage from fossil fuels after its own investigations showed the opposite.  "The first amendment does not allow fraud."

Quote
@billmckibben: Video of @SenWhitehouse on the Senate floor demanding federal probe of #exxonknew https://t.co/bws8IMEnJI

https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/656626857962577920

The 20-min video:  https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=B_9Dzs1-sd0
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #52 on: November 15, 2015, 12:51:41 AM »
Investigation Finds World’s Largest Coal Company Misled Public On Climate Change
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The world’s largest private coal company misled its investors and the public about the financial risks of climate change, New York state’s attorney general announced on Monday.

In a press release, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Peabody Energy violated New York laws prohibiting “false and misleading conduct” in public statements about its business. Specifically, Schneiderman found that Peabody failed to tell its investors about how regulations to fight climate change could hurt the coal industry. Instead, Peabody insisted it had no idea how climate regulations would affect its business, and provided its investors with “incomplete and one-sided discussions” of the future of coal in a climate-concerned world, Schneiderman said.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/11/09/3720519/peabody-energy-settlement-new-york-schneiderman/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #53 on: November 18, 2015, 12:09:38 AM »
Pakistani farmer sues government to curb climate change
Asghar Leghari says climate change is reducing crop yields and his community to poverty. 
http://m.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/1116/Pakistani-farmer-sues-government-to-curb-climate-change
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #54 on: November 21, 2015, 01:43:54 PM »
Judge Denies Washington Kids' Petition on Climate Change
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A judge has denied an appeal by eight young activists who petitioned Washington state to adopt stricter science-based regulations to protect them against climate change.

King County Superior Court Judge Hollis Hill affirmed some of the children's arguments, saying the state has a duty to protect natural resources for future generations. But she said the Washington Department of Ecology is already working on meeting that obligation by writing new rules for greenhouse gas emissions ordered by the governor.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/judge-denies-washington-kids-petition-climate-change-35329878
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #55 on: November 21, 2015, 11:12:19 PM »
The linked article indicates that the fossil fuel industry is so concerned about the "Our Children's Trust" lawsuit to control climate change that they have joined the US government to oppose the demands of the 21 youth's to cut emissions/pollution:

http://news.yahoo.com/us-kids-lawsuit-over-climate-change-gathers-steam-022539503.html

Extract: "A lawsuit over climate change filed by 21 young Americans has gained the attention of the fossil fuel industry, which is joining the US government to oppose the kids' demands for sharper pollution cuts.

The plaintiffs, aged eight to 19, include the granddaughter of renowned climate scientist James Hansen, formerly of NASA and a well-known advocate of reducing the greenhouse gases that are causing the planet to heat up.

The plaintiffs want the government to commit to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions and implement "a science-based climate recovery plan" that protects the Earth for future generations, according to the Oregon-based group, Our Children's Trust.

"This case will put indisputable science about climate change squarely in front of the federal judiciary," said the group, which filed its lawsuit against President Barack Obama's administration in August, and has filed multiple state lawsuits over the past several years."
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #56 on: November 24, 2015, 06:14:03 PM »
California Attorney General Urged to Investigate Exxon Over Climate
A decade-old law in California grants the attorney general sweeping investigative and prosecutorial powers to pursue securities violations.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20112015/california-attorney-general-urged-probe-exxon-mobil-climate-change-new-york
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #57 on: November 25, 2015, 08:22:01 PM »
Groundbreaking Ruling: Washington State Has Constitutional Obligation to ‘Stem the Tide of Global Warming’
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Late last night, King County Superior Court Judge Hollis R. Hill issued a groundbreaking ruling in the unprecedented case of eight youth petitioners who requested that the Washington Department of Ecology write a carbon emissions rule that protects the atmosphere for their generation and those to come.

In a landmark decision, Judge Hill declared “[the youths’] very survival depends upon the will of their elders to act now, decisively and unequivocally, to stem the tide of global warming … before doing so becomes first too costly and then too late.”

Highlighting inextricable relationships between navigable waters and the atmosphere, and finding that separating the two is “nonsensical,” the judge found the public trust doctrine mandates that the state act through its designated agency “to protect what it holds in trust.” The court confirmed what the Washington youth and youth across the nation have been arguing in courts of law, that “[t]he state has a constitutional obligation to protect the public’s interest in natural resources held in trust for the common benefit of the people.”
...
In this important ruling, Judge Hill has made it very clear what [the Department of] Ecology must do when promulgating the Clean Air Rule: preserve, protect and enhance air quality for present and future generations and uphold the constitutional rights of these young people,” said Western Environmental Law Center attorney Andrea Rodgers. “We will hold Ecology accountable every step of the way to make sure that Judge Hill’s powerful words are put into action. This is a huge victory for our children and for the climate movement. To Gov. Inslee, we hope you take this message with you to Paris and heed Judge Hill’s finding that ‘if ever there were a time to recognize through action this right to preservation of a healthful and pleasant environment, the time is now.’”

This case is one of several similar state and international cases, all supported by Our Children’s Trust, seeking the legal right to a healthy atmosphere and stable climate. Cases brought by youth to protect the atmosphere are pending before trial judges in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Colorado, and before appellate courts in Massachusetts and Oregon.
http://ecowatch.com/2015/11/20/stem-tide-climate-change/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #58 on: December 16, 2015, 04:09:45 PM »
A Turning Point in Combating Climate Change May Be Here
Quote
... A crucial event occurred in 2013 when researcher and author Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute calculated that only 90 companies, including Chevron, ExxonMobil and BP, were largely responsible for the climate crisis. “So relatively few companies really are proportionally responsible for a pretty large share of the climate change problem in a way that allows lawyers and others to start thinking about causality in a legal sense,” Horowitz says.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-turning-point-in-combating-climate-change-may-be-here/
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #59 on: January 12, 2016, 04:21:14 PM »
Although the Paris Agreement is not a treaty, it will provide NGO's with access to more (transparent) data (beginning in 2023) as to what each government is (or is not) doing; thus increasing individual governments to legal action based on the principle that governments are required to protect their citizens.

http://www.politico.eu/article/paris-climate-urgenda-courts-lawsuits-cop21/

The binding part of the deal requires countries to set emission reduction targets, develop the policies for meeting them, publicly report their progress every five years starting in 2023, and update and enhance their targets after each review. But what the agreement doesn’t dictate is the size of those emissions reductions, or the tactics that countries should take to reach them.
This is where individuals, NGOs and other advocacy groups come in. If they feel that a government policy falls short of the agreement’s goals, they could take it to court.

“Our court case is based on civil law saying there is a very high danger, and therefore the government should protect its citizens,” said Minnesma. “It’s not using the climate change treaty directly, only indirectly.”
The Paris agreement further raises the benchmark against which groups and citizens can measure whether a government is doing enough to protect its citizens, by hiking the global goal to a temperature limit of 1.5 degrees, according to legal experts.
The issue of how climate change policies fit under a government’s duty to protect its people is a new one for courts, said Lucas Bergkamp, a partner at the law firm Hunton & Williams focused on environmental law.
“To the extent that courts perceive climate change as an existential threat, and to the extent they believe the body politic fails to address it, courts may be inclined to rule in the favor of climate activists because otherwise the world will go down the drain — that’s how they might look at it,” he said.
Bergkamp said the Urgenda ruling is “highly controversial” and “legally doubtful” because it oversteps laws on the separation of powers. Still, he added, “it is certainly a risk that has become much greater with the Paris agreement.”

Still, some countries have legal systems that make such lawsuits less likely, experts said. In the U.K., cases filed in national courts have to be based on national laws. The U.S. has a political question doctrine that encourages federal courts to show respect for other branches of government.
Views vary on how effectively the Paris agreement can be enforced.



And if calling out laggards fails to incite action against climate change, the international reporting requirements could help to fuel lawsuits by providing data to back up claims."
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #60 on: January 15, 2016, 01:20:51 PM »
Elsewhere in Washington state....

A judge just dealt a bitter setback to US climate change protesters
Quote
A jury in Washington state is hearing the final arguments today (Jan. 14) in a huge case for the environmental movement. Five activists have been charged with criminal trespassing for blocking a train full of crude oil.

The judge initially allowed the so-called “Delta Five” to use a so-called “necessity defense,” which argued that their criminal actions were justified by the threat of climate change. It is the first such case in the United States, and environmentalists were hoping for a precedent-setting breakthrough.

However, in a last-minute decision, the judge instructed the jury not to take the “necessity defense” argument into consideration, seriously undermining their prospects.
http://qz.com/594560/a-judge-just-dealt-a-bitter-setback-to-us-climate-change-protesters/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #61 on: January 16, 2016, 04:19:03 PM »
More on the Washington state case: Judge said he was sympathetic, but bound by precedent.

Activists lose criminal case on climate change defense – but judge praises effort
• ‘Delta 5’ had attempted to illegally block trains carrying crude oil near Seattle
• Furthest environmentalists have gone in US using ‘necessity’ defense
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/15/delta-5-seattle-washington-climate-change-court-defense
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #62 on: January 26, 2016, 12:19:01 AM »
U.S. Supreme Court upholds electricity demand rule
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The Supreme Court sided with federal regulators Monday, upholding a rule meant to incentivize efforts to reduce electricity demand.

The court ruled that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not exceed the authority Congress gave it when it wrote its “demand response” rule, mandating that electric utilities pay customers to reduce use during peak demand periods.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/266875-supreme-court-upholds-electricity-demand-rule
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #63 on: January 28, 2016, 03:42:17 PM »
Paris Treaty Could Broaden EPA's Authority Over Greenhouse Gases
Study suggests a novel approach to global pollution, extending the EPA's reach through a section of the Clean Air Act.
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A decades-old and little-used provision of the Clean Air Act intended to make the United States a good environmental neighbor could now be employed to comprehensively control the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new analysis.

Authored by a team of professors, attorneys and environmental scholars specializing in climate change, the study analyzes a section of the Clean Air Act intended to safeguard international borders from air pollution. Their prescription could provide the most potent approach for achieving the targets of the Paris climate agreement, the analysts say.

"The time is ripe for EPA to consider use of its authority for international air pollution control," the study urged.

The provision has been part of the Clean Air Act since it was passed in the early 1970s. It authorizes the EPA to require states to address emissions that endanger public health or welfare in other countries––if those countries extend the same protections to the U.S.

It’s a long-standing principle––one country shouldn’t be able to pollute another," said one of the study’s authors, Michael Gerrard, a professor of environmental law at Columbia University. "What this does is gives the EPA the tool to address the greater impacts of greenhouse gas emissions generated in the United States."

The idea behind this interpretation is that greenhouse gases generated in the U.S. travel worldwide and cross all international borders. Now, with the U.S. committing to the Paris accord to hold global warming under 2 degrees Celsius, the EPA could use this provision to uphold the country's responsibilities under the new agreement.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/24012016/study-says-epa-has-authority-regulate-greenhouse-gases-clean-air-act-climate-change
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #64 on: February 27, 2016, 08:36:28 PM »
U.S. Supreme Court without Justice Scalia is seen as more anti-business.

Scalia's Death Prompts Dow to Settle Suits for $835 Million
Quote
Scalia’s death is likely to make it harder for companies to get the five votes they need to overturn awards or get new restrictions on class actions. He had been a key voice for companies in challenging group suits at the Supreme Court.

Scalia wrote the 5-4 ruling in 2011 that said Wal-Mart Stores Inc. couldn’t be sued by potentially a million female workers. Two years later, Scalia was the author of a 5-4 ruling that freed Comcast Corp. from having to defend against an $875 million antitrust lawsuit on behalf of Philadelphia-area customers.
...
“It is unlikely that any nominee will be as favorable to business as Justice Scalia was,” Gordon said in an e-mail. “The anti-business wing will carry more decisions.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-26/dow-cites-scalia-s-death-in-settling-urethanes-case-for-835m
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sidd

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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #67 on: March 15, 2016, 07:49:24 PM »
Kids Sue the Government and Oil Giants Over Climate Change
Quote
The future has decided not to wait for us to address climate change. In Eugene, Oregon, a group of 21 elementary and high school students has taken matters into its own hands and is suing the federal government as well as trade groups representing energy companies such as British Petroleum and Exxon Mobil over their role in contributing to carbon emissions. And why shouldn’t kids sue the government and oil giants over climate change?

“This is the biggest issue on the planet,” said climate scientist and Columbia University professor James Hansen, who is also one of the named plaintiffs in the case. Hansen spoke soon after a hearing on the case, held in the federal court in Eugene, at which attorneys for the defendants argued for the case to be dismissed. For her part, the plaintiffs’ attorney, Julia Olson, argued that U.S. Magistrate Judge Tom Coffin has a duty to hear the case.
http://www.legalreader.com/kids-sue-the-government-and-oil-giants-over-climate-change/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #68 on: March 16, 2016, 08:30:04 PM »
Examining the judicial history of Merrick Garland, the man President Obama nominated today for the vacant spot on the Supreme Court.
Quote
How do you judge a judge?

In the case of Judge Merrick Garland, who President Obama nominated for the Supreme Court on Wednesday, there is not much evidence for or against his environmental record. But as cases against the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and other regulatory actions head to the courts, it’s important to glean what we can.

By and large, Garland has a reputation for allowing agencies to do the work they set out to do — and that’s usually a good thing for the environment.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/16/3760853/garland-environmental-record/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #69 on: March 21, 2016, 04:31:22 PM »
Colorado considers bill to make it easier to sue Big Oil over fracking earthquakes
http://grist.org/climate-energy/colorado-considers-bill-to-make-it-easier-to-sue-big-oil-over-fracking-earthquakes/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #70 on: March 30, 2016, 07:41:42 PM »
U.S.:  State AGs Vow To Tackle Climate Change And Fossil Fuel Industry Fraud
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A group of state attorneys general just declared war on big polluters.

The group, representing 17 states, said it will pursue climate change litigation. Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands officially joined an ongoing investigation into potential fraud by ExxonMobil, and all the states committed to working together as “creatively, collaboratively, and aggressively” as possible to combat climate change.

“We have heard the scientists; we know what is being done to the planet,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said at a press conference Tuesday in Manhattan. The group also came together to defend the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, formally filing its petition in support of the rule Tuesday in the D.C. District Court of Appeals.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/29/3764399/climate-change-attorneys-general/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #71 on: March 31, 2016, 06:47:52 PM »
More on the multi-state AG action against fossil fuel companies

US States Team Up to Nail Big Oil for Climate 'Fraud'
Quote
Some of the world's largest oil firms face a high-powered U.S. legal effort to investigate them for long knowing, and hiding, the link between burning fossil fuels and destructive climate change.

If the oil giants lose, their total liabilities could run into the billions or even trillions of dollars, according to some legal experts, and Canadian energy firms may not be immune.
...

Oil firms could be on hook for trillions: expert

Muffett believes the much larger U.S.-wide investigation could expose firms to "billions of dollars" in liabilities -- maybe more.

"It affects nearly everyone on earth. What are the financial implications of that deception? It's measured in the trillions of dollars," said the legal expert.

The pioneering legal field of "climate litigation" -- once dormant with few legal victories -- is accelerating faster than global warming, he noted.
http://thetyee.ca/News/2016/03/30/US-AGs-Investigate-Climate-Fraud/
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #72 on: April 09, 2016, 04:44:36 PM »
Go James Hansen, Go!

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/34246737-75/federal-judge-in-eugene-says-court-should-not-dismiss-youths-climate-change-lawsuit.html.csp

Extract: "A federal magistrate judge in Eugene said Friday that a potential landmark lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by a group of environmentally minded youth plaintiffs and a leading climate scientist should be allowed to proceed in court.



The lawsuit alleges the government has known for more than 50 years that carbon dioxide pollution causes climate change, but has failed to implement plans to phase out greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, government officials have promoted the development and use of fossil fuels, the plaintiffs allege.
Twenty one youths between the ages of 8 and 19, several of whom live in Oregon, are named as plaintiffs. Joining them is climate scientist James Hansen, who is listed in the lawsuit as being the “guardian” for ¬“future generations.” "
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GeoffBeacon

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #73 on: April 11, 2016, 07:35:37 PM »
The Hansen/Oregon/Young people ruling by Judge Coffin is uplifting reading

It  has not been reported much. Climate Progress has a piece reporting it but not many others.

I didn't expect the BBC would report this but oddly a search in Google

Quote
"james hansen" site:bbc.co.uk
gives a result

Quote
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment
8 hours ago - Get the latest BBC Science and Environment News: breaking news, analysis and debate on science and nature in the UK and around the world.
- but no mention of Hansen on the actual page.
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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #74 on: April 13, 2016, 11:54:24 PM »
ExxonMobil is firing back against the government's probe into their possible disinformation campaign against climate change action:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-fires-back-at-climate-change-probe-1460574535
 
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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #75 on: April 17, 2016, 06:02:34 PM »
The linked article illustrates why climate hawks should hit conservative skeptics with more subpoenas about climate change:

http://grist.org/politics/conservatives-love-subpoenas-about-climate-change-until-they-get-hit-with-one-themselves/

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #76 on: April 19, 2016, 11:27:27 AM »
May be we should oblige individuals, companies and states to report their true cost. It seems to me we don't even take into account the CO2 when it is our main problem. Along the industrial chain the indirect cost should also be passed on the level above. The CO2 forcing is around 2w/m2, we have to multiply that by our half sphere earth but depending if you calculate other 100 years or other 100.000 years the energy result is very very different, so the cost of what we are emitting is also very very different. Except that the end result will certainly be the end of life (above 2kg)... euh only that...zig
http://www.exposingtruth.com/new-un-report-finds-almost-no-industry-profitable-if-environmental-costs-were-included/#ixzz45urpxizy

AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #77 on: April 27, 2016, 11:29:13 PM »
The linked article discusses an activist campaign to get state attorneys to investigate corporations for possible climate fraud:

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/26042016/environmental-activists-campaign-exxon-climate-change-investigation-attorney-general-schneiderman

Extract: "A four-year, coordinated strategy by environmental organizations to hold ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel corporations legally accountable for climate change denial has come to fruition, as state attorneys general have teamed up to launch investigations into possible climate fraud.
The advocacy efforts stretch back to at least 2012, when the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Climate Accountability Institute brought together about two dozen scientists, lawyers and legal scholars, historians, social scientists and public opinion experts for a two-day workshop in La Jolla, Calif., titled "Climate Accountability, Public Opinion, and Legal Strategies." They discussed a strategy to fight industry in the courts, after years of concentrating on public relations and policy fights, and they sought to use "the lessons from tobacco-related education, laws, and litigation to address climate change," according to a report on the 2012 workshop."
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #78 on: April 30, 2016, 12:44:17 AM »
Quote
Youths Secure Second Win In Washington State Climate Lawsuit
Judge Chastises State, Rules From Bench Ordering State to Reduce Carbon Emissions

Seattle, WA – Today, in a surprise ruling from the bench in the critical climate case brought by youths against the State of Washington's Department of Ecology (“Ecology”), King County Superior Court Judge Hollis Hill ordered Ecology to promulgate an emissions reduction rule by the end of 2016 and make recommendations to the state legislature on science-based greenhouse gas reductions in the 2017 legislative session. Judge Hill also ordered Ecology to consult with the youth petitioners in advance of that recommendation. The youths were forced back to court after Ecology unexpectedly withdrew the very rulemaking efforts to reduce carbon emissions the agency told the judge it had underway. This case is one of several similar state, federal, and international cases, all supported by Our Children’s Trust, seeking the legal right to a healthy atmosphere and stable climate.
http://ourchildrenstrust.org/sites/default/files/2016.04.29WAFinalRulingPR.pdf
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #79 on: May 03, 2016, 01:26:51 AM »
Peabody coal's contrarian scientist witnesses lose their court case
Peabody Energy brought contrarians Spencer, Happer, and Lindzen to testify on their behalf, but the judge wasn’t convinced by their case
Quote
In Minnesota, an administrative hearing resulted in a judicial recommendation that will have impacts across the country. It was a case argued mainly between environmental groups (such as Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, and their clients Fresh Energy and the Sierra Club) and energy producers (such as the now-bankrupt coal company Peabody Energy) regarding what a reasonable social cost of carbon should be.
...
On April 15th, the Administrative Law Judge decided that the estimated cost of carbon pollution currently used in Minnesota is too low. New knowledge about how fast the climate is changing, how much it will change, and how it will affect societies and economies would be reflected in a larger carbon cost. This leads to a large increase in the estimated cost, from $0.44-4.53 per ton to $11-57 per ton. ...
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/may/02/peabody-coals-contrarian-scientist-witnesses-lose-their-court-case
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #80 on: May 07, 2016, 07:12:21 PM »
Philippines investigates Shell and Exxon over climate change
A legal case will consider if the emissions of 50 fossil fuel companies violate the human rights of those hit by extreme weather.
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/may/07/climate-change-shell-exxon-philippines-fossil-fuel-companies-liability-extreme-weather
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #81 on: May 09, 2016, 04:19:51 PM »
Exxon scrambles to contain climate crusade
A green campaign to make the company pay for climate change is besieging the oil industry and its conservative allies.
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Interviews with advocates on both sides of the feud reveal how quickly the anti-Exxon movement has sprouted, to the point that it’s now consuming op-ed pages, airwaves and courtrooms across the country. Once merely intent on shaming the oil giant into better behavior, environmentalists are pursuing a strategy to discredit the company, weaken it politically and perhaps make it pay the kinds of multibillion-dollar legal settlements that began hitting the tobacco industry in the 1990s.
...
“The First Amendment is not a defense to fraud,” Walker told POLITICO through a spokesman, and “the Constitution provides no right to mislead shareholders.”

“The tobacco companies,” he added, “raised exactly these arguments. … That was soundly rejected by the courts.”
...
Activists plan to make a public stand at Exxon’s annual shareholder meeting May 25, where several resolutions intended to force the company into acknowledging the climate threat will come to a vote.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/exxon-climate-campaign-222920
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #82 on: May 11, 2016, 08:37:40 PM »
Coal made its best case against climate change, and lost
A Minnesota judge found the preponderance of evidence did not favor coal industry climate science denial
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Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private sector coal company (now bankrupt), recently faced off against environmental groups in a Minnesota court case. The case was to determine whether the State of Minnesota should continue using its exceptionally low established estimates of the ‘social cost of carbon’, or whether it should adopt higher federal estimates.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/may/11/coal-made-its-best-case-against-climate-change-and-lost
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #83 on: May 18, 2016, 12:55:44 AM »
Historic Victory: 4 Teenagers Win in Massachusetts Climate Change Lawsuit
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Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found in favor of four youth plaintiffs, the Conservation Law Foundation and Mass Energy Consumers Alliance Tuesday in the critical climate change case, Kain et al. v. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

The court found that the DEP was not complying with its legal obligation to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and ordered the agency to “promulgate regulations that address multiple sources or categories of sources of greenhouse gas emissions, impose a limit on emissions that may be released … and set limits that decline on an annual basis.”

“This is an historic victory for young generations advocating for changes to be made by government. The global climate change crisis is a threat to the well being of humanity, and to my generation, that has been ignored for too long,” youth plaintiff Shamus Miller, age 17, said.

“Today, the Massachusetts Supreme Court has recognized the scope and urgency of that threat and acknowledges the need for immediate action to help slow the progression of climate change. There is much more to be done both nationally and internationally but this victory is a step in the right direction and I hope that future efforts have similar success.”
http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/17/mass-climate-change-lawsuit/
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sidd

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #84 on: May 18, 2016, 05:28:52 AM »
Re: Mass court win for climate

That is big.

AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #85 on: May 18, 2016, 04:46:57 PM »
Per the linked article the legal action approach is gaining steam:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/climate-fight-moves-streets-courts-180959100/?no-ist

Extract: "Recent actions by both youth and state attorneys are making climate change a legal issue, not just an environmental cause."

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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #86 on: June 19, 2016, 05:25:23 AM »
The link leads to a discussion by the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, CSER, about a new book entitled: "Climate Justice & Disaster Law":

http://cser.org/climate-justice-disaster-law-book-launch/

Extract: "Climate disasters demand an integration of multilateral negotiations on climate change, disaster risk reduction, sustainable development, human rights and human security."
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #87 on: June 26, 2016, 07:58:06 PM »
The linked article is entitled: "DNC Platform Calls for Justice Dept. to Investigate Fossil Fuel Companies"; and hints that a Clinton administration has a green-light from Wall Street (finance) to attack (legally) the fossil fuel industry (thus limiting fossil-fuel-dominated-GOP power); while trying to keep economic growth sustained (by limiting carbon tax & regulations) long enough for the financial/Davos-elites to put create a "Fourth Industrial Revolution" (think Elon Musk & fleets of Telsa self-driving electric cars, etc.):


http://insideclimatenews.org/news/26062016/democratic-party-platform-justice-department-investigation-fossil-fuel-companies-exxon-climate-change-fraud-clinton-sanders-fracking


Extract: "Platform's authors request federal climate probe into 'allegations of corporate fraud,' while brushing off calls for carbon tax and other strong climate policies."
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #88 on: July 01, 2016, 04:32:06 PM »
Per the linked Rolling Stone article, the courts will soon need to decide whether ExxonMobil is fraudulent or just greedy:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/did-exxon-lie-about-global-warming-20160630?page=6

Extract: "Exxon's paper, "Energy and Carbon – Managing the Risks," previews the arguments Tillerson made onstage. In the coming decades, more people, especially poor people, will want more energy. The world will use more renewables – but also more fossil fuels. A truly low-carbon future will not happen. "ExxonMobil believes that although there is always the possibility that government action may impact the company, the scenario where governments restrict hydrocarbon production in a way to reduce GHG emissions 80 percent ... is highly unlikely," the report says. "We are confident that none of our hydrocarbon reserves are now or will become 'stranded.'"
It's possible that Tillerson's hoped-for technological breakthrough will magically save us all – and save Exxon's stock price. It's possible that Exxon, demonstrably richer and bigger, will out-compete its fossil-fuel rivals, even as carbon constraints begin to pinch – someone else's carbon assets may have to stay in the ground, but not Exxon's. It's possible that Exxon is already a toxic asset, that it is subprime, that it is no longer one of the most valuable companies on the planet because its reserves are already unburnable. All of this is possible.
It's likewise possible that the future we fear – three or four or five degrees of temperature rise, and with it fire and famine and rising oceans – will come to pass. Exxon, we now know, has chosen to bet on it. Its 2014 white paper, acknowledging that climate change is real, though not a threat to its future profits, is well within the statute of limitations for Schneiderman's case. The courts will have to decide if this is fraud or just wishful thinking."
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #89 on: July 10, 2016, 11:01:02 AM »
The linked The Guardian article is entitled: "Climate scientists are under attack from frivolous lawsuits".  This indicates that power never gives in without a fight:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/jul/07/climate-scientists-are-under-attack-from-frivolous-lawsuits

Extract: "Climate Science Legal Defense Fund is forced to defend climate scientists against constant frivolous lawsuits
Today’s climate scientists have a lot more to worry about than peer review. Organizations with perverse financial incentives harass scientists with lawsuit after lawsuit, obstructing research and seeking to embarrass them with disclosures of private information."
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #90 on: July 13, 2016, 04:19:40 PM »
In my opinion more stockholder should files more lawsuits against most corporate management for failure to disclose the climate risks that they are facing.  This is a legally actionable matter.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2016/07/13/93-percent-of-public-companies-face-climate-risk-only-12-percent-disclose-it/#faa604f81581

Extract: "93 Percent Of Public Companies Face Climate Risk; Only 12 Percent Have Disclosed It



To prepare for those risks, investors need information on companies’ future emissions profiles, capital-expenditure plans and risk-management plans, the panelists said. Investors need to know who is responsible for assessing risk at each company, how they’re doing it, and how far they’ve gotten."
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #91 on: July 14, 2016, 04:53:24 PM »
State Attorneys General Subpoenaed by Rep. Lamar Smith for Exxon Fraud Probe
Quote
Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, escalated his confrontation over the climate probes of ExxonMobil by issuing subpoenas to two state attorneys general and several nongovernmental advocacy groups on Wednesday.

Smith (R-Tex.) announced the action in a news conference on Capitol Hill, saying the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts were trying to criminalize the opinions of people and companies who hold alternative views on climate science.
...
"The American public will wake up tomorrow morning shaking their heads when they learn that a small group of radical Republican house members is trying to block a serious law enforcement investigation into potential fraud at Exxon," Soufer said. "This Attorney General will not be intimidated or deterred from ensuring that every New Yorker receives the full protection of state laws."
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13072016/lamar-smith-exxon-climate-probes-subpoenas-state-ags-eric-schneiderman-maura-healey
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #92 on: July 18, 2016, 01:45:11 AM »
The linked article discusses but one example of legal action against the federal government, and many more will likely be required to try to slow the use of fossil fuels (I strongly support such legal actions):

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/07/15/3798275/renewables-deserve-capacity-markets-too/

Extract: "But now four environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club, have announced a lawsuit against FERC, saying the rules are going to cost consumers and are unduly burdensome to renewable energy."
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sidd

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #93 on: July 18, 2016, 06:14:32 AM »
Re: FERC/PJM regulation lawsuit

I think the good guys will lose this one. Fight another day.

AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #94 on: July 24, 2016, 05:09:54 PM »
When three former Treasury Secretaries state in writing to the SEC that firms are being dishonest to their investors w.r.t. climate change risks, it is time for more legal action against those dishonest firms that are illegally shirking their fiduciary responsibilities:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/former-treasury-chiefs-tell-sec-to-crack-down-on-climate/


Extract: "Three former secretaries of the U.S. Treasury yesterday forcefully urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to manage financial disclosures related to climate change."
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #95 on: July 24, 2016, 10:49:00 PM »
The Columbia Law School provides the linked "Climate Law Blog" with useful information about US & International climate change law (which is still developing):

http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/

http://web.law.columbia.edu/climate-change/resources/litigation-charts

http://www.arnoldporter.com/~/media/files/climatechange-chemicallegislation/climatechangelitigationchart.pdf

http://web.law.columbia.edu/climate-change/resources/climate-change-securities-disclosures-resource-center

Extract: "The Securities and Exchange Commission published an interpretive release, effective Feb. 8, 2010, to guide U.S. public companies on the SEC’s existing disclosure requirements related to climate change."
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #96 on: July 28, 2016, 03:35:34 AM »
World's largest carbon producers face landmark human rights case
Quote
The world’s largest oil, coal, cement and mining companies have been given 45 days to respond to a complaint that their greenhouse gas emissions have violated the human rights of millions of people living in the Phillippines.

In a potential landmark legal case, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHR), a constitutional body with the power to investigate human rights violations, has sent 47 “carbon majors” including Shell, BP, Chevron, BHP Billiton and Anglo American, a 60-page document accusing them of breaching people’s fundamental rights to “life, food, water, sanitation, adequate housing, and to self determination”.

The move is the first step in what is expected to be an official investigation of the companies by the CHR, and the first of its kind in the world to be launched by a government body.

The complaint argues that the 47 companies should be held accountable for the effects of their greenhouse gas emissions in the Philippines and demands that they explain how human rights violations resulting from climate change will be “eliminated, remedied and prevented”.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/27/worlds-largest-carbon-producers-face-landmark-human-rights-case
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #97 on: August 03, 2016, 06:41:08 PM »
The Evil Empire (backing methane emissions) Strikes Back:

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/08/03/3804612/methane-rule-epa-states-lawsuit/

Extract: "EPA’s Efforts To Curb Methane Emissions Suffers A Setback As 13 States Sue

The thirteen-state lawsuit -- which includes Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin, as well as state departments in Kentucky and North Carolina -- is not the first time the methane rules have been challenged in court. North Dakota, which saw huge financial benefits during its oil boom a few years ago, filed its own lawsuit in July."
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sidd

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #98 on: August 03, 2016, 09:21:33 PM »
The methane lawsuit will go to the Supremes and, as usual, the states will get slapped down.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #99 on: August 05, 2016, 08:40:31 PM »
U.S. states signed pact to keep Exxon climate probe confidential
Quote
A pact that 15 U.S. states signed to jointly investigate Exxon Mobil Corp for allegedly misleading the public about climate change sought to keep prosecutors' deliberations confidential and was broadly written so they could probe other fossil fuel companies.

The "Climate Change Coalition Common Interest Agreement" was signed by state attorneys general in May, two months after they held a press conference to say they would go after Exxon, the world's largest publicly-traded oil and gas company, and possibly other companies.

The signed agreement has not been made public until now, and Reuters reviewed a copy of it on Thursday.
http://news.trust.org/item/20160804100120-z991z/
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