Eight residents of Muscatine, Iowa, sued a local corn milling plant alleging trespass, nuisance and negligence from pollutants and odors from the plant. The trial court dismissed the claims as being preempted by the Clean Air Act (CAA), Iowa law, and the political question doctrine. That decision was appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court.
The NAM, along with 5 other manufacturing associations, filed an amicus brief supporting the trial court's decision on preemption and political question. Manufacturers are already subject to a complex system of state and federal regulations, and adding common-law tort liability on top of that will further undermine the ability to create jobs and compete. We argued that courts are not equipped to properly handle cases like this, because they require clear and manageable standards for imposing liability, and such standards involve policy judgments that can only properly be developed by legislative and regulatory bodies with the investigative resources and technical and scientific expertise necessary. In addition, the executive and legislative branches of government are authorized to set and adjust standards and rules to guide the regulated community, and they are much better able to consider the views of many more affected parties, including a variety of scientific and economic experts, to revisit their policy choices on a regular basis, and to develop a consistent policy for everyone, not a piece-meal policy that depends on the court or state in which the case occurs.
On June 13, 2014, the Iowa Supreme Court reversed the trial court decision and found that the CAA does not either expressly or impliedly preempt state emissions laws nor preclude a right of action brought under those laws. The Court also stated that several clauses in the CAA reserve for private citizens the power to bring public nuisance claims. Unless a state law or common law right of action is expressly preempted by federal statute, courts are reluctant to apply the preemption doctrine to state causes of action. The Court also found that the Iowa environmental statute did not preempt the plaintiffs’ claims because it too reserved the right to bring a public nuisance claim. Rejecting the political question argument, the court found that no constitutional controversy existed, tort claims are typically not precluded under the political question doctrine, and resolution of the controversy did not require a policy decision by another branch of government.
Claims based on nuisance theories of liability continue to be somewhat of a wild card for the regulation of plant emissions. Manufacturers continue to seek a rational regulatory system where the rules are clear and the potential liabilities are predictable and manageable.