New Jersey joins air pollution suit; 8 states battle 5 key utilities
By Mary Jo Layton, The Record, Hackensack, N.J. -- July 21
New Jersey will join seven other states in filing a groundbreaking suit against five of the nation's largest utilities to curb global warming, state officials said Tuesday.
The litigation is part of ongoing efforts by Trenton to join other states in
attempting to reduce pollution and improve air quality through aggressive legal
action, a successful strategy in some cases.
For example, an Ohio utility vowed agreed this month to make deep cuts in the
air pollution it sends drifting over New Jersey. The cuts are part of a
settlement in a lawsuit filed by New Jersey, other states, and the federal
Environmental Protection Agency.
By targeting companies in the South and Midwest in the latest case, the state
hopes to force them to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere,
where the gas blankets the earth, traps heat, and causes global warming.
Reducing these emissions would help slow the pace of warming, which has been
blamed for profound environmental changes, such as rising sea levels and more
severe storms.
Researchers also have identified numerous health threats, such as greater
risk of heat exhaustion and cardiac distress. Higher temperatures also increase
the concentration of ozone at ground level. This gas can damage lung tissue and
cause problems for people with asthma and other conditions.
"This is the first significant action to compel the reduction of the
gases that cause global warming," a McGreevey administration source said.
"Obviously, New Jersey has a practical stake in this as a coastal
state."
The defendants in the lawsuit include American Electric Power Co. of Ohio;
the Southern Co. of Georgia; the Tennessee Valley Authority of Knoxville; Xcel
Energy Inc. of Minnesota; and Cinergy Corp in Ohio. The companies emit nearly
650 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, which is nearly one-fourth of the
total emissions from U.S. utilities each year.
Attorney General Peter C. Harvey is expected to join officials from New York,
Connecticut, and Vermont in announcing the lawsuit in New York. The attorneys
general in California, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island are also involved in
the litigation, as is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The states involved have also led the way in capping emissions produced by
their own power plants.
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