Review And Analysis Of Environmental Public Interest Litigation Between Friends Of Nature And State Grid Gansu Company

With the rapid transformation and development of our country’s economy and society,there have been many cases of environmental pollution and damage to public interests in various places.The types of cases are complex and varied,the relevant provisions of legal and judicial interpretations are not clear,and many problems have arisen in the implementation of environmental civil public interest litigation.Friends of Nature sued State Grid Gansu Company’s environmental public interest lawsuit is the first environmental civil public interest lawsuit filed in China against non-direct polluting enterprises.There are three focus of dispute in this case: whether the State Grid Gansu Company has harmed public interests,whether it is a qualified defendant,and whether it should take on the tort liability.First of all,the State grid Gansu company damaged the public interest."Damage" includes "damage to the ecological environment itself",the behavior of damage the public interest also include the direct and indirect behavior.The State grid Gansu company has not fulfilled the special obligation required by the Renewable Energy Law,causing damage to social public interests.Its behavior is an inaction to the legal obligation which is an indirect behavior that harms the social public interest.Secondly,the State Grid Gansu Company is a qualified defendant.The defendant scope of environmental civil public interest litigation includes both direct actors and non-direct polluting enterprises that cause damage to public interests or cause significant risks.The State Grid Gansu Company exhibited harmful behavior in the substantive law and was in line with the scope of the defendant in the procedural law.So it was a qualified defendant in this case.Finally,the State Grid Gansu Company should assume the environmental tort liability.In the environmental civil public interest litigation,the constituent elements that omission as environmental tort liability include: non-direct polluting enterprises have special legal obligations,failure to perform specific obligations,the environmental public interest suffer damage,there is casual relationship between the failure to perform specific obligations and the damage of the environmental public interest.The State Grid Gansu Company has the special requirements of the Renewable Energy Law for power grid companies;it has not fulfilled this legal obligation in the actual operation process;the ecological environment has increased the carbon dioxide,Sulfur dioxide,nitrogen oxides and other harmful substances thatcould not have been increased,because the State Grid Gansu Company failed to fulfill this legal obligation and suffered damage;there is a clear causal relationship between them,therefore the company should have environmental tort liability.