Oil Majors Seeking Legal Lifeline From State Lawsuits; Gee, I Wonder How SCOTUS Could Rule?!?!?
The Supreme Court is poised to decide whether to wade into another fight between fossil fuel producers and nearly two dozen U.S. cities, states and counties suing the industry for climate change damages. At issue Wednesday — as the Supreme Court holds its first conference of a new term — is if the court will take up the industry’s request to move from state to federal court lawsuits that seek to hold fossil fuel producers financially liable for climate change. It’s a venue dispute with huge consequences, and it comes as a federal appeals court on Friday became the latest to signal skepticism about the industry’s efforts to transfer the cases to federal court, where producers believe they have a better chance to prevail. The Supreme Court in a narrow ruling last year sent the cases to the federal courts for review, and most federal panels since have ruled that the lawsuits should be heard by state courts (Greenwire, May 24, 2021).
Even Judge Richard Sullivan, who wrote a 2021 decision for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found that New York City’s claims in a climate lawsuit were preempted by federal law, voiced doubts Friday as an attorney for Exxon Mobil Corp. argued before the 2nd Circuit that a case brought by the state of Connecticut should be heard in federal court. “Connecticut cannot dispute, and its complaint clearly reflects, that it is seeking monetary relief for, in its words, ‘the catastrophic harm caused by global climate change,’” Exxon attorney Kannon Shanmugam said. The partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP argued that the state is trying to regulate emissions that are regulated by the federal Clean Air Act.
But as Shanmugam referenced Sullivan’s earlier decision in the New York case, Sullivan interjected that the Connecticut and New York cases are “very different.” Sullivan noted that the New York case, unlike most of the other climate disputes, was initially filed in federal court (Climatewire, April 2, 2021). “Here we’re dealing with something very different, which is removal,” Sullivan said of the Connecticut case. “And it’s a tougher road to hoe under removal.”
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The fight over where the climate liability lawsuits should be heard has stymied action for years as municipalities across the country have gone to court seeking payment from the oil and gas industry for the effects of planet-warming emissions. The suits were mostly filed in state courts, but industry has sought to move them to federal benches, where a judge could find that the municipalities’ claims are preempted by federal law. The latest petition to the Supreme Court was filed in June by Suncor and Exxon asking the court to review a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that delivered a victory to three Colorado governments.
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https://www.eenews.net/articles/oil-industry-seeks-scotus-lifeline-amid-mounting-setbacks/