This doesn't seem to have been posted or commented upon yet, so ...
California, which has battled the automotive industry over new global warming regulations for years, sued the world's six-largest automakers yesterday, demanding that they pay for environmental damage caused by the emissions of their vehicles.
"Global warming is causing significant harm to California's environment, economy, agriculture and public health," said the state's attorney general, Bill Lockyer.
"Vehicle emissions are the single most rapidly growing source of the carbon emissions contributing to global warming, yet the federal government and automakers have refused to act."
I realize hit-and-run posts are frowned upon, but I have little to add. If it's true that some auto companies have had but have suppressed cleaner technologies, and if there have been internal debates on paper or on email about the merits of moving forward, the document discovery process could get very interesting ...
NYT coverage here.
The suit, filed in United States District Court in Northern California, is the first such attempt to hold automakers accountable for the greenhouse gases that vehicles produce. It accuses General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Chrysler and Nissan of creating a public nuisance by building millions of vehicles that collectively discharge 289 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.