On this day, June 30 2008, lawfare worked.
Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore, a Fulton County (Georgia) Superior Court judge, on 30 June 2008, blocked construction of the first coal-burning power plant proposed in Georgia in more than 20 years, ruling that it must limit emissions of carbon dioxide. This was the first time that a court had applied an April 2007 ruling of the US Supreme Court recognizing that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act to an industrial source.
(Johansson, 2015: 83) [EcoHustle!)
See also here.
Why this matters
“The law” is an interesting construct, isn’t it? Sometimes the power of its words force those running the show onto the back foot, at least for a while.
“They make the laws, to chain us well [the clergy dazzle us with heaven, or they damn us into hell]”.
What happened next?
The plant, Longleaf, never got built – as part of a quid pro quo with the Sierra Club, something else did, in Texas. The atmosphere definitely noticed the difference, oh yes.