A small town in North Carolina has filed a lawsuit against one of the country's largest energy suppliers over climate change.
What's happening?
According to the report from NPR, the town of Carrboro, North Carolina, has filed suit against Duke Energy. The town says Duke has known about climate change and the warming of the planet, and the fact that coal and gas were primary causes of it, but continued to operate power plants that ran on those fuels and spew greenhouse gases as a result.
Specifically, it says the energy giant learned about our changing climate and gas and coal's role in it at a meeting in 1968.
"At that meeting there was discussion about carbon dioxide emissions and how they were harming the planet and the need to potentially take action," says Howard Crystal, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, who consulted on the case.
The suit also alleges Duke engaged in campaigns to mislead and confuse the public about whether climate change was actually real or not. It notes a 1991 campaign run by a group denying the existence of climate change was funded by money from Duke.
Why is this lawsuit important?
This is the first case in the U.S. in which a power company has been sued over climate change. Typically, in talks of legal action, you see an oil, coal, or gas company as the target. The first lawsuit formally filed against a utility company came earlier this year, against Oregon natural gas company NW Natural.
Also earlier this year, the state of California sued ExxonMobil for running deception campaigns misleading the public on how well plastic products can be recycled.
Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee says the town is trying to be proactive in its approach.
"We need to protect our community from future harms, and this is why we find ourselves here as a plaintiff in this lawsuit," she said.
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Yale law professor Doug Kysar says the lawsuit, while groundbreaking, was likely going to happen sooner or later.
"We've known for a few years now that the utilities had a similar level of internal knowledge about the dangers of climate change and the connection of their activities to increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," Kysar said.
What's being done about this lawsuit?
For its part, Duke Energy says it's reviewing the suit.
Kysar believes the suit could have a tougher time finding success than actions taken against oil and gas companies, because of public perception. Foushee said she hopes to change that perception with this suit.
"Somebody has to speak truth to power about this issue with Duke Energy Corporation, and so it is us," Foushee said.
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