Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Utilities -- Real Money

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Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down a number of decisions. Many commentators are talking about the Wal-Mart case, but the big decision was the American Electric Power case. Specifically, it was American Electric Power Co., Inc., et al. v. Connecticut et al., and the decision was unanimous. This case involved some of the nation's largest utilities. AEP was joined by Southern Energy , Tennessee Valley Authority, Xcel Energy and Cinergy, a subsidiary of Duke Energy . Siding with AEP and other coal-burning utilities was the Obama administration. 

And from bijournals/morning call:

The nation’s high court in an opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ruled 8-0 that the EPA is better equipped than a federal court to handle carbon emissions standards tackled in the six-state suit against the utilities. The companies, whose coal-fired plants account for a quarter of all emissions from domestic electricity, were sued by a group of states in 2004 on grounds that their carbon emissions violate public nuisance law in contributing to global warming. Claiming the EPA hasn’t acted enough to cut emissions from the companies’ plants, the states were pushing for court-imposed restrictions.

In the opinion, Ginsburg wrote that the federal Clear (sic) Air Act and the EPA actions it authorizes “displace any federal common law right to seek abatement of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel fired power plants.”

Note: the decision was unanimous.