It was just a couple weeks ago that the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Canadian mining firm Teck Cominco of a lower court decision in 2006 that "an American environmental law applied to a foreign company when some of its pollution reaches U.S. territory." Indian tribes and environmentalists in the northwest claimed Teck Comincos effluents were polluting the Columbia River.
Now in what appears to be turnabout is fair play, DTE Energy is in the crosshairs of Canadian environmental groups over cross border mercury emissions. An excerpt from CommonDreams.org follows:
On Wednesday, the Superior Court of Justice in Sarnia, Ontario issued an order directing a lower court to summon DTE Energy to face charges for poisoning the St. Clair River with dangerous amounts of mercury. Michigan's DTE Energy Company is being charged for its role in polluting the St. Clair River with mercury.
And this tidbit from Toronto's The Star:
The case will probably be "a really uphill battle," for the Alliance, said Barry Spiegel, at Toronto's Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers.
It's not likely DTE would be legally required to obey a summons from Ontario or be penalized if it didn't appear in court and was convicted anyway, particularly since it has no assets or workers in Ontario.
"It's hard to say how far (the Alliance prosecution) will go," he said.
If the lawyers are right, who wins and who loses? If a company is operating within its permit limits in the country and state it is in, how can it be held accountable in a foreign country? Let's all sue China for its mercury emissions and see how far we get. International understanding and cooperation are required, not cross border lawsuits.
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