In what is apparently a first for the judicial system (that means courts and stuff), a judge has rejected an air pollution permit issued by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to a coal plant because the permit did not specify limits on carbon emissions. Never before has a court decision linked carbon dioxide to an air pollution permit.

Now, the tricky part of this is that, technically, carbon dioxide is not recognized as a pollutant by the federal government, though the Supreme Court ruled last year it could be regulated as such. The deal is, because carbon dioxide does not directly affect respiration, it is not a “classic” pollutant. Even so the New York Times reports,

the judge, Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore in Superior Court in Fulton County, Ga., said that federal air pollution control laws required pollution permits to cover all pollutants that could be regulated under the Clean Air Act, not just those for which there is “a separate, general numerical limitation.”

Naturally, this decision will be appealed by the coal company. And, because carbon dioxide is not regulated by the government, one lawyer familiar with the case states that other jurisdictions may not use this ruling as a precedent in any other courts. That being said, it will be interesting to see where, if anywhere, the appeal goes, and if that codifies the decision handed down in Georgia.

takepart to read an interesting article explaining in more detail why carbon dioxide is not considered a pollutant, and at what point it might be considered one.