Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-03T10:50:05.772Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Environmental Contamination, PCBs, and Climate Change as Public Nuisance Harms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2023

Linda S. Mullenix
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Get access

Summary

Chapter 7 narrates the development of public nuisance law in the context of environmental contamination litigation. At the outset, the description of environmental litigation notes that these cases represent the oldest and prototypical public nusiance litigation cases, because the cases are closest to an invasion of, or interference with, property rights that are the framework for historical public nuisance claims. The chapter canvasses a wide variety of environmental public nuisance claims relating to contamination of common water sources, noxious plumes emanting from factories and plants, chemical emissions contributing to climate change, oil spill contamination, waste dumps, ground water and soil contamination from various chemicals such as PCBs and MBTEs. The chapter discusses the Supreme Court decision in American Electric Power v. Connecticut (2011), holding that any asserted federal common law public nusiance claim against electric power companies was displaced by the federal Clean Air Act. The chapter contains an examination of federal displacement and preemption doctrine concerning the relationship between several federal and state laws regulating environmental concerns.

Type
Chapter
Information
Public Nuisance
The New Mass Tort Frontier
, pp. 131 - 154
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×