Chamber Urges Ninth Circuit to Reject Greenhouse Emissions Liability Against U.S. Automakers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC) urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold a lower court decision that dismissed a case by the State Attorney General that would have held automakers liable for manufacturing cars that produce greenhouse emissions (California v. General Motors, et al.).

"The Attorney General of California is trying to commandeer the state's judicial branch to define national policy on global warming," said Robin Conrad, executive vice president of NCLC. "Individual federal courts do not have the expertise and authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions."

The California attorney general is appealing a lower court ruling that dismissed the state's lawsuit seeking to hold the top six automobile manufacturers liable for the global warming damages allegedly caused by the emission of greenhouse gases from automobiles. The state is relying on a legal theory that the federal courts have the authority to judicially create remedies for "public nuisances" that originate in one state but affect another. In asking the court to craft this new remedy for damages allegedly caused by greenhouse emissions, the attorney general admitted that the legal theory is "novel" and not based on any "existing body of case law."

"Creating a new cause of action to hold businesses liable for engaging in lawful commercial activity only harms businesses and the U.S. economy," stated Conrad. "The tenuous legal theory that each state can regulate the business activities of another state opens the door to inefficient, piecemeal regulation of emissions that cannot address their goals of reducing greenhouse gases."

NCLC, the public policy law firm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is a membership organization that advocates fair treatment of business in the courts and before regulatory agencies. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

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