A Victory for the California Team

AP reports that:

The Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. agreed to provide a combined $500 million in financing for renewable energy projects and take into account greenhouse gas emissions associated with projects they support.

The lawsuit was originally filed in San Francisco federal court in 2002 by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and four cities that claimed they would suffer environmental and economic damage from global climate change.

The plaintiffs were four cities, three of them in California:

In the lawsuit, the four cities – Boulder, Colo., and the California cities of Arcata, Oakland and Santa Monica – claimed they would feel the environmental impacts of those faraway projects. Oakland argued its airport next to San Francisco Bay could be damaged by sea-level rise associated with global warming, while Boulder claimed warmer temperatures could affect the snowpack it relies on for its water.

The district judge had previously refused to dismiss the suit for lack of standing.  Thus, this settlement can be traced to the Supreme Court’s pioneering ruling on climate standing in Massachusetts v. EPA.

Climate Change, climate litigation, Export-Import Bank, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Oakland city attorney, Overseas Private Investment Corp., renewable energy