Supreme Court allows state and local climate suits against oil companies to proceed

WASHINGTON – Oil and gas companies have failed for now to convince the Supreme Court to stop numerous lawsuits filed across the country seeking to recover damages for harms caused by climate change.

The court on Monday declined to consider if federal law prevents states and cities from suing the companies.

The fossil fuel industry said it was critically important for the court to weigh in now before it spends significant resources fighting the suits, which oil companies said are a “serious threat to one of the nation’s most vital industries.”

“The stakes in this case could not be higher,” lawyers for multiple companies told the Supreme Court in appealing a decision by the Hawaii Supreme Court allowing a suit there to move forward.

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The Supreme Court in recent years had rejected the industry’s effort to move the cases to federal court.

The outgoing Biden administration had urged the court not to get involved at this stage. The Justice Department argued that the state Supreme Court’s decision was correct and that because this is a state suit, the U.S. Supreme Court can’t weigh in while the litigation is ongoing.

The administration also opposes an effort by GOP-led states to block the suits.

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to take a different position.

Seawalls used to fight erosion are pictured at Waikiki beach in Honolulu, Hawaii January 30, 2008, as delegates attend the Security and Climate Change conference.
Seawalls used to fight erosion are pictured at Waikiki beach in Honolulu, Hawaii January 30, 2008, as delegates attend the Security and Climate Change conference.

States and municipalities suing the oil and gas companies argue the industry deliberately concealed and misrepresented the environmental impacts of fossil fuels while promoting their product.

The suits are modeled after the successful challenges to tobacco and opioid companies and rely on consumer protection statues and public nuisance claims.

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But fossil fuel companies say climate change is not a local issue.

“Lawsuits like this one seeking to regulate global emissions are beyond the limits of state law,” lawyers for Shell wrote in a brief.

Lawyers for Honolulu said the city is not trying to regulate pollution but to be compensated for the local impacts of climate change attributable to the companies’ “deceptive conduct.”

The city said told the Supreme Court the justices should wait until more courts across the country have considered whether federal law preempts the state suits before getting involved. Courts in Maryland, New Jersey and South Carolina could be weighing in soon, their lawyers said.

“The percolation process has only just begun,” the lawyers said, adding that the “massive” oil and gas companies are “well equipped to handle the ordinary costs and risks of state-court litigation.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court allows local climate suits against oil companies to proceed