November 23, 2009, - 4:04 pm
Sleazy Lawyers: Hurricane Katrina was Manmade; Let’s Sue Oil Companies
Leave it to sleazy trial lawyers to find a way to tie “climate change”/”global warming” BS with massive lawsuits and Hurricane Katrina. It was bad enough when the liberal media, Louis Farrakhan, and every loon under the sun blamed the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina on President Bush.
Now the trial lawyers are blaming it on oil and energy companies. Because, hey, the price of gas isn’t going up fast enough, and we need to add an extra litigation defense tax to the price. Cha-ching:
A group of 12 Mississippi Gulf Coast homeowners is using a novel legal strategy to try to recoup losses suffered during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The lawsuit seeks damages from a group of 33 energy companies, including ExxonMobil and coal giant Peabody Energy, electric utilities, and other conglomerates for allegedly emitting greenhouse gases that the litigants say contributed to global warming.
That, the litigants claim, caused a rise in sea levels and increased air and water temperatures fueling the Category 5 hurricane that destroyed their homes.
Absurd. It’s the oil companies’ fault these people didn’t buy the right insurance. So, let’s make consumers across America pay for our screw-up. That’s essentially what this is about.
The lawsuit, considered a long shot by legal experts, cleared a hurdle last month when a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said it could continue, overruling a Circuit Court judge who had agreed with arguments from the companies that global warming is a political, not legal, issue.
Yes, it sounds like this “longshot” is hitting its target. And even if it does not, American consumers all over the country pay the price for the lawyers, etc. to defend this baloney. It’s always passed on to the customer. This is one of those stark examples in which “loser pays” (in which the loser must pay legal fees of the winner) is sooo appropriate.
The key to the appeal was in the legal strategy, said Robert Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program at the University of Maryland. Rather than asking the court to force the companies to stop emitting greenhouse gases, the lawsuit asks for a ruling on whether damage suffered by the homeowners can be traced back to those emissions, he said.
“Just because climate change is difficult, courts aren’t going to shy away from their traditional role in weighing issues of harm,” Percival said.
Difficult? It’s a myth. This is quackery. Junk science. Baloney. Sadly, this baloney is being pimped in courts nationwide, such as in this other case:
In September, a federal judge in the Northern District Court of California dismissed a lawsuit brought by the tribal Alaskan village of Kivalina against 24 energy companies. Villagers are seeking $400 million in damages from the companies, claiming global warming had made their village uninhabitable.
The villagers have appealed the decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Percival said the decisions in the 5th and 2nd Circuits make it likely that the Kivalina ruling will be overturned. An opening brief by the plaintiffs is due Feb. 22, court records say.
If at first you don’t succeed, sue, sue again. If you have a baseless hypothesis that can’t be proven scientifically, for $150 or so, you have a 50/50 shot of getting a judge (and/or jury) to declare it fact, anyway.
F. Gerald Maples, the New Orleans attorney representing the homeowners, says what the defendants did is legal, but homeowners want to be compensated for the damage allegedly caused by their actions, he said.
Like I said, cha-ching. He probably took this risky case on an hourly basis. Even if they lose, he still wins. And if they companies settle to avoid costly litigation, they all win. And we all lose.
Tags: baloney, BS, climate change, energy, energy companies, environmental law, F. Gerald Maples, gas, gas companies, global warming, homeowners, Hurricane Katrina, Kivalina, lawsuit, lawyers, litigation explosion, loser pays, Mississippi Gulf, oil, oil companies, Robert Percival, trial lawyers
environmental law is the up and coming popular thing for young grads to study, they want to take corporations down. my cousin is in law school now for civil rights, she is thinking about changing to this. her and I have a split she is a obama fan and I am not.
Vox Day’s blog covered the AGW/CC story emails and links to where they are if people wanted to read them. I trolled thru about 30 of them. I was shocked. very delighted the scam is revealed-a truth for algore and his billions he stood to reap from the carbon business.
as for H-Kat. In 2005, the local news and surrouding state news kept it logical, this is a storm-reality.
but on places like coast to coast radio was saying this was weather war-NOT REALITY we created it, bush did h-kat, the russians did h-kat.
pathetic delusional conspiracy talk. usually…coast is weird talk, but that night in September as the leavies broke it was crazy talk.
lpolverini on November 23, 2009 at 4:58 pm