California plans to sue US carmakers for allegedly contributing to global warming. And here's the best of the chat on the blogosphere.
The CalRepublicans blog believes that "This lawsuit is a waste of taxpayer money. Why would you file suit against the car makers when they just got handed this crazy bill that has so many requirements forcing them to pay money for something that has already been established as a problem and is being worked on?
"Because the automakers have decided to file suit delaying litigation on the rules California issued to force them to cut tailpipe emissions."
Elsewhere, the response from US bloggers appears to be a mixture of bafflement and anger. "Is this some kind of joke?" rages Broken Kode.
"Easily the single most ridiculous thing I've read all day (and the day hasn't really begun for me)... It's not the car manufacturers that you've got to take to task. It's yourselves. The car manufacturers did not build the California infrastructure... This is like the kid that spilt the milk pointing at anyone (and everyone else) to lay the blame."
Like Broken Kode, the Innocent Bystanders blogsite sees the lawsuit as part of a masterplan by Californian attorney-general Bill Lockyer to boost his profile. "When the case is dismissed in a few months for failure to state a cause of action, the press coverage will be negligible. Mr Lockyer will have succeeded at increasing his name recognition and positioning himself as a champion of the environment and opponent of big corporations. This kind of crap drives me nuts."
Carbon Planet predicts that, whatever the environmental benefit, the consumer will ultimately carry the cost of any legislation. "As businesses are incurring more and more costs directly attributable to global warming, it's only natural they'll be looking to recover those costs from industries and people they hold responsible for the damages."
And, of course, the United States seems to have been here before in the shape of "they lied to us" prosecutions against tobacco manufacturers, as the Treatise in New Media blogspot reminds us. "The state of California is suing car manufacturers over greenhouse gas emissions. The case is dubious at best, not quite the clear cut 'they lied to us' mode of Big Tobacco cases (many of which are now being overturned)."
Comments