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Big Oil asks Supreme Court to kill climate lawsuits before trial
Oil companies say federal law should block state climate deception claims.
The US Supreme Court heard arguments from oil companies on Monday that could help decide the fate of more than two dozen lawsuits accusing the industry of deceiving the public about climate change. The claims seek potentially billions of dollars in damages to help pay the costs imposed by climate-related extreme weather.
Yet the questions before the court did not focus on the merits of these claims but instead on technical legal matters over whether they should proceed at all.
The case being argued was brought in 2018 by the city and county of Boulder against ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy in Colorado state court. While the case and dozens like it have survived multiple appeals in state and federal courts, the oil companies are asking the Supreme Court to declare that federal law preempts state and local governments from bringing such claims.
“This case represents an unprecedented effort to use state law to regulate global conduct,” said Kannon Shanmugam, arguing for Exxon and Suncor. In effect, Shanmugam said, Boulder is attempting to use state law to regulate oil company activity around the world. “If Boulder’s claims are allowed to go forward, some 90,000 municipalities across the country would have the ability to make national and international energy policy by asking juries to impose catastrophic damages on selected fossil fuel producers.”
But Boulder and dozens of other plaintiffs have argued their claims do not attempt to impose any limits on oil companies at all—the Boulder case seeks damages, not an injunction on any activity.
“This case is not about emissions,” said Kevin Russell, who argued the case for Boulder. “It’s about deception.”
Oil companies and conservative groups have been ramping up a campaign to block the lawsuits from proceeding as they inch closer to trial. Some states have enacted laws barring such lawsuits, and Republicans have introduced federal legislation that would shield oil companies from climate liability claims. The Trump administration has also intervened in several state cases, including Boulder’s, to try to block them from moving forward. Many scientists whose work is being cited in the cases have been the subject of more than 100 public records requests from conservative groups seeking information about their work and funders, according to Politico.
The first question that arose at Monday’s hearing, posed by Justice Clarence Thomas, is whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the case at this stage because no ruling has been issued.
The oil companies contend that the proliferating lawsuits are already causing sufficient harm and that the court should decide now whether the cases should proceed. Several justices suggested they thought it might be too early to intervene.