Second Circuit – Global warming: City of New York v. Chevron Corp.

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Global warming

Foreign policy – Clean Air Act

City of New York v. Chevron Corp.

18-2188

Judges Kearse, Sullivan, and Park

Background: The plaintiff sued five multinational oil companies seeking to recover damages for the harms caused by global warming. The plaintiff appealed from the dismissal of its complaint.

Ruling: The Second Circuit affirmed. The court held that global warming is a uniquely international concern that touches upon issues of federalism and foreign policy. As a result, it calls for the application of federal common law, not state law. The Clean Air Act grants the Environmental Protection Agency, not federal courts, the authority to regulate domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Further, while the Clean Air Act has nothing to say about regulating foreign emissions, judicial caution and foreign policy concerns counsel against permitting such claims to proceed under federal common law absent congressional direction.

John Moore, corporation counsel, for the appellant; Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher,John F. Savarese and Ben M. Germana, of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Theodore V. Wells., Daniel J. Toal, and Jaren Janghorbani, of Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, David C. Frederick and Brendan J. Crimmins, of Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, and Nancy G. Milburn, of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, for the appellees.