Coal producer Peabody Energy Corp. says its recent emergence from bankruptcy shields it from lawsuits brought by three coastal California communities against fossil fuel companies over rising sea levels and global warming, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The lawsuits were filed last month by the counties of San Mateo and Marin in Northern California and the southern city of Imperial Beach. The suits seek to hold more than three dozen oil, gas and coal companies responsible for greenhouse-gas emissions produced over decades. The lawsuits link these emissions to global climate change and rising sea levels, which they say have made coastal communities more vulnerable to flooding and other dangers. Peabody, which emerged from chapter 11 in April, said on Monday in papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Missouri that it should be dropped as a defendant in these lawsuits, saying provisions in its court-approved bankruptcy plan block the California lawsuits from moving forward against the company.
