Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a naturally occurring gas that constitutes only four molecules of every 10,000 in Earth’s atmosphere. The Obama administration classified CO2 as a pollutant to be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Since then, regulations that harm the U.S. economy have been legally justified by referring to this “Endangerment Finding.”

On May 25, U.S. District Judge William Alsup, presiding in the case The People of the State of California v. BP PLC et al., issued an order to legal counsel of both parties that they “shall submit 10-page supplemental briefs on the extent to which adjudication of plaintiffs’ federal common law nuisance claims would require the undersigned judge to consider the utility of defendants’ alleged conduct.”