Supreme Court Rules for Oil-and-Gas Companies Fighting Climate Lawsuit
18 May 2021 - 3:46AM
Dow Jones News
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court handed the city of Baltimore a
preliminary setback in its bid to sue more than 20 multinational
oil-and-gas companies on allegations they contributed to climate
change and misled the public.
Baltimore filed the 2018 lawsuit in Maryland state court,
alleging energy companies failed to warn the public about the
dangers of their products. The city says it has suffered
climate-change-related injuries, including from rising sea levels
and extreme weather, and seeks to recover monetary damages. Other
state and local governments have filed similar lawsuits.
The defendants fighting such claims include BP PLC, Chevron
Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. They sought to
move Baltimore's case to federal court, which they argued is a more
appropriate venue with fairer procedural protections. The companies
said the case belonged in the federal system because some of their
oil-and-gas exploration efforts have come at the behest of the
federal government.
A federal trial judge denied the request in 2019 and last year a
federal appeals court said it was largely powerless to consider
moving the case out of the state system.
The high court, in a 7-1 opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch, on
Monday said that decision was incorrect. In a highly technical
ruling, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a federal appeals
court for further proceedings. The justices said nothing about the
substance of the case.
Only Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Justice Samuel Alito
didn't participate in the case. His public financial disclosures
indicate that he has investment holdings in the energy sector that
would prohibit him from considering the lawsuit.
Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 17, 2021 13:31 ET (17:31 GMT)
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