U.S. Chamber, oil industry sue Vermont over law requiring companies to pay for climate change damage
CTV
A top oil and gas industry trade group is suing Vermont over new law requiring that fossil fuel companies pay a share of the damage caused by climate change.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a top oil and gas industry trade group are suing Vermont over its new law requiring that fossil fuel companies pay a share of the damage caused over several decades by climate change.
The federal lawsuit filed Monday asks a state court to prevent Vermont from enforcing the law, which was passed last year. Vermont became the first state in the country to enact the law after it suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. The state is working to estimate the cost of climate change dating back to Jan. 1, 1995.
The lawsuit argues the U.S. Constitution precludes the act and that the state law is preempted by the federal Clean Air Act. It also argues that the law violates domestic and foreign commerce clauses by discriminating “against the important interest of other states by targeting large energy companies located outside of Vermont.”
The Chamber and the other plaintiff in the lawsuit, the American Petroleum Institute, argue that the federal government is already addressing climate change. And because greenhouse gases come from billions of individual sources, they argue it is impossible to measure “accurately and fairly” the impact of emissions from a particular entity in a particular location over decades.
“Vermont wants to impose massive retroactive penalties going back 30 years for lawful, out-of-state conduct that was regulated by Congress under the Clean Air Act," said Tara Morrissey, senior vice president and deputy chief counsel of the Chamber’s litigation center. “That is unlawful and violates the structure of the U.S. Constitution — one state can’t try to regulate a global issue best left to the federal government. Vermont’s penalties will ultimately raise costs for consumers in Vermont and across the country.”
A spokesman for the state's Agency of Natural Resources said it had not been formally served with this lawsuit.
Anthony Iarrapino, a Vermont-based lobbyist with the Conservation Law Foundation, said the lawsuit was the fossil fuel industry's way of “trying to avoid accountability for the damage their products have caused in Vermont and beyond.”
This year’s hard winter weather likely left significant damage for many homeowners coming into spring. Building and renovation expert Ryan Thompson spoke to CTV’s Your Morning about some of the biggest areas to focus on around the exterior of your home, to help prevent serious damage after the cold, hard winter.
Iranians are managing to get online during the current war with the U.S. and Israel despite drastic censorship and frequent blackouts, throwing the spotlight on to providers of tools such as VPNs (virtual private networks).
March is Nutrition Month, and two Ottawa dietitians joined "CTV Your Morning Ottawa" to mark the occasion and share three sample performance plates for three different levels of activity.
Dozens of models with Down syndrome strutted down a catwalk at a fashion show in Romania’s capital for an evening celebrating style, “atypical beauty” and courage to mark World Down Syndrome Day.
Hawaii suffered its worst flooding in more than 20 years as heavy rains fell on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm a week ago, officials said Friday while warning that still more rain was expected during the weekend.
While Canada is well known for its accomplishments in space — including building the robotic arms used on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station — the country still has no ability to launch its own satellites. This week, Ottawa committed nearly a quarter‑billion dollars towards changing that.
March is Liver Health Month, and while many people think about alcohol and diet when it comes to liver health, a growing risk factor is chronic hepatitis B.
It’s an enduring stereotype that Canadians are unfailingly nice, quick to apologize even when they have done nothing wrong. But an online urban legend claims the opposite of Canada’s soldiers, painting a picture of troops so brazen in their brutality that international laws were rewritten to rein them in.
Friday marks the first official day of spring in the northern hemisphere, but it will still feel like winter this weekend for many Canadians, as snow, sleet, rain and sub-zero temperatures are forecast across the country.
A social media post from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week shows a big-eyed macaque staring out from behind bars.
Young people in southeast England and beyond are lining up for the meningitis B vaccine after an outbreak killed two people, sparking supply warnings from pharmacies and raising broader questions about the best public health response to the disease.
Many wage earners are engaging in “microshifting,” a flexible scheduling approach that involves tackling job duties in short, productive bursts instead of a single nine-to-five stretch.
Tyson Atleo, a hereditary leader of the Ahousaht First Nation, says the creation of three new forestry areas to be managed by his community and two others on the west coast of Vancouver Island marks the realization of a long-standing promise.