Lawyers Look Forward, To Climate Change

Firms springing up to address many legal facets of new energy economy Looking for a litmus test that will predict whether the United States will regulate carbon in the near future? How about a dozen large law firms around the country devoted only to climate change. As the world stands on the cusp of an economy fueled with low-carbon energy, attorneys are learning the lay of the land in a new legal landscape. It's a landscape ready to bear fruit, with sweeping federal carbon emission laws anticipated, many private firms voluntarily participating in the Chicago Carbon Exchange, and no end in sight to activist lawsuits against bit polluters. Not to mention the aggrieved parties, like the Inuit of Alaska, who are watching their once-icy coastal homes turn to water, according to a story in the June 25 Dallas Morning News.