Utility groups and their shareholders will not have to foot the bill for many of the environmental clean-up costs incurred by their predecessor companies following an influential decision by Britain's top court. The House of Lords yesterday allowed an appeal by National Grid Gas against an earlier High Court ruling that found the utility should contribute to the cost of cleaning up sites contaminated by former gas companies...[T]here were ramifications for thousands of sites contaminated decades ago by utility companies...[L]awyers said the decision by the law lords meant the public would have to bear the brunt of the clean-up bill.