Washington (Platts)--16Jul2007

A US judge has scheduled for August 30 a hearing in a lawsuit that seeks
to hold a host of energy firms accountable for fueling global warming and the
destruction that Hurricane Katrina wrought in 2005, documents show. 

     At the hearing, Arch Coal, Allegheny Energy and 10 other companies can
present arguments on why they should be dismissed from the suit, Judge Louis
Guirola of the US District Court in Gulfport, Mississippi, said. 

     A victory by this subset of companies in the hearing would deal a blow to
the lawsuit, which also names as defendants more than other 30 electric
utilities and oil companies. 

     If Arch, Allegheny and the other 10 companies do not succeed in
extricating themselves from the suit, the matter likely will go forward
against all of the energy companies, because they have all put forth similar
arguments in their defense. 

     The plaintiffs in the suit, who had relatives killed and property
destroyed when Katrina roared ashore near New Orleans, Louisiana, two years
ago, are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive
damages from the energy companies. 

     The plaintiffs maintain that the energy companies bolstered Katrina's
destructiveness by pumping millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other
heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the environment. Those emissions warmed
the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and caused Katrina to grow larger and more
destructive than it otherwise would have, they allege.

     "In the last two decades, global warming science has...clarified the
risks posed by the [energy companies'] greenhouse gas emissions," lawyers for
the plaintiffs told the court in one of their initial legal filings. "[The
companies] cannot pretend to be surprised by the consequences of their
emissions."  

     The energy companies have put forth a variety of arguments asking the
court to dismiss them from the suit. Most of these revolve around the fact
that the US has no law on the books that requires companies or individuals to
reduce GHGs. 

     If there were such an obligation, then "billions of people have breached
it" by driving their cars, traveling by airplane and engaging in other
energy-intensive actions, and "they are all to blame for Hurricane Katrina,"
Virginia-based AES told the court. 

     The hearing in August will focus on whether the plaintiffs have legal
"standing" to sue, Guirola said in his order. The judge said he would also
consider the energy companies' arguments that global warming should be
addressed by the legislative and executive branches of the US government,
and not the courts. 

		--Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com