CORPORATE LIABILITY IN ENERGY-RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGES

Abstract

A corporate liability for energy-related environmental damages is a key area of environmental law, especially globally, which is facing rising energy demand, the growing role of energy resource development and environmental issues. The legal regime of corporate accountability for the environmental damage of energy companies and firms It concentrates on the essential principles of tortious and statutory liability, specifically on negligence, nuisance and faultless liability. The study further delves into critical legal mechanisms such as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act(CERCLA) in the US, the Environmental Liability Directive in the EU, and the Environment Protection Act in India, and assesses their capacities in enforcing corporate accountability against environmental damage.

It also performs a comparative study of legal doctrine and regulatory responses in different jurisdictions. Consider, for instance, U.S. environmental statutes like CERCLA that impose strict liability for releases of hazardous substances, and the emphasis in the European Union on the "polluter pays" principle under the Environmental Liability Directive. The changed legal fiction in India, as the great judgments like M.C. Such case laws are at the heart of the analysis the paper carries out evaluating the approaches of the courts of different jurisdictions with regards to the issues related to holding corporations responsible for environmental degradation through energy producing activities.

The paper also deals with corporate defences — the permit defence, corporate veil, and due diligence-defences — as well. The paper ends with a glimmer of new trends in this respect, especially in the form of climate change litigation, and makes some policy recommendations to improve the corporate accountability for environmental harm. By providing scholarly scrutiny in this way, this Paper reiterates the necessity of concerted international legal regime and enforcement mechanisms to enforce corporate accountability on environmental protection.