Judges cannot make their own cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, but only because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is already doing it, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in a major global-warming case. Several states, led by New York and Connecticut, pursued a tenuous theory in court, arguing that, since carbon emissions cause global warming, which in turn leads to natural disasters, misery and death, then courts ought to be able to fix it as a public nuisance.
The states sued five of America’s largest power companies in the case American Electric Power v. Connecticut, seeking a court order that they cut their carbon emissions by whatever amount the judge thought appropriate. The lower court dismissed the case, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit sided with the states.
