2008 Woodie Awards
Bill gives lawyers a license to raid treasury
Andrew P. Morriss
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: Opinion
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The bill defines harm extraordinarily broadly: "any effect of global warming, currently occurring or at risk of occurring, and the incremental exacerbation of any such effect or risk that is associated with relatively small increments of greenhouse gas emissions, even if the effect or risk is widely shared."
What do you get if you win? Cash, which can "be used for a beneficial mitigation project recommended by the plaintiff or to compensate the plaintiff for any impact from global warming suffered by the plaintiff."
While the current bill limits these payments to a total of $1.5 million a year, it's hard to escape the suspicion that if this bill passes, that limit will rapidly increase.
Part 3 is the clincher: the plaintiff can collect attorneys' and expert witness fees. Estimates of attorneys' fees paid to environmental pressure groups in a series of cases involving missed deadlines under the Endangered Species Act total millions of dollars since the mid-1990s. This bill has the potential to make the ESA fees look like small change.
Putting these three parts together, it becomes clear that Waxman's "Carbon Neutral Government Act" would be more honestly titled the "Sue the Government Act."
It would be a great thing if the federal government did less harm to the environment. Unfortunately Waxman is proposing giving lawyers a license to raid the federal treasury over actually stopping the government's harmful activities.
What do you get if you win? Cash, which can "be used for a beneficial mitigation project recommended by the plaintiff or to compensate the plaintiff for any impact from global warming suffered by the plaintiff."
While the current bill limits these payments to a total of $1.5 million a year, it's hard to escape the suspicion that if this bill passes, that limit will rapidly increase.
Part 3 is the clincher: the plaintiff can collect attorneys' and expert witness fees. Estimates of attorneys' fees paid to environmental pressure groups in a series of cases involving missed deadlines under the Endangered Species Act total millions of dollars since the mid-1990s. This bill has the potential to make the ESA fees look like small change.
Putting these three parts together, it becomes clear that Waxman's "Carbon Neutral Government Act" would be more honestly titled the "Sue the Government Act."
It would be a great thing if the federal government did less harm to the environment. Unfortunately Waxman is proposing giving lawyers a license to raid the federal treasury over actually stopping the government's harmful activities.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Shanda
posted 11/02/07 @ 1:54 PM MST
Having a bill like this will take away even more funds from the Federal Government to actually work on fixing the problem. This will invite any scumbag who wants to sue the government to take a piece of the pie. (Continued…)
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