by Craig Richardson, E&E Legal President
As Appearing in InsideSources.com
If air conditioning utility bills are causing consumers a touch of heartburn this summer, they will certainly find no relief in a disturbing new development regarding unfounded litigation against the energy industry and a terrible ruling from a federal judge in Rhode Island.
With little legal precedent to support his decision, Chief Judge William Smith of the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island remanded a politically driven climate change lawsuit case back to state court, effectively allowing the baseless claim that a few companies are solely responsible for all of the Earth’s climate change to be adjudicated at the state level.
In handing down this decision — which will most assuredly be overturned — Judge Smith has ruled that immensely complicated, multinational issues surrounding Earth’s climate change may now be decided in state courthouses, using local “nuisance ordinances” to potentially impose massive fines on just a handful of American energy companies. This is an obvious shakedown effort by the Greens and their political and financial benefactors who brought these frivolous suits in the first place.
