North Carolina, ex rel. Cooper v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 615 F.3d 291 (4th Cir. 2010)

(case involves appeal of injunction requiring installation of emissions controls at four of defendant's power plants where injunction was based on trial court's determination that emissions constituted public nuisance; trial court decision imposing injunction reversed - utilization of public nuisance would result in "balkanization" of clean air regulations and lead to confused patchwork of air standards to the detriment of industry and the environment; trial court decision improperly applied home state law extraterritorially in contradiction of International Paper Co v. Ouellette, 479 U.S. 481 (1987); activity that is permitted and extensively regulated by federal government cannot be a public nuisance; court notes that if public nuisance doctrine were to be utilized to overturn clean air legislation, it would be "increasingly difficult" for anyone to determine what standards govern and energy policy could not be established and would gut the Clean Air Act; court's opinion deals blow to groups and persons that seek to use public nuisance doctrine to shut down or substantially restrict particular activities based on alleged contribution to "global warming" - a.k.a. "climate change").