The Supreme Court is poised to play referee on climate change lawsuits this term, with the justices being asked to decide where the court battles should take place. [emphasis, links added]
Climate activists have sought to sue in state courts, where they hope to get better treatment and use friendlier environmental laws to go after energy companies in what critics call “climate lawfare.”
The companies, meanwhile, are fighting to have the cases heard in federal court, where they argue the issues are better suited.
The fights are a taste of what’s likely to be a steady stream of lawsuits by climate activists in the coming years, looking to enlist the justices to target fossil fuel concerns.
“All of it is designed to do one thing,” O.H. Skinner, former Arizona solicitor general, told The Washington Times’ “Court Watch” podcast. “There is one game plan, which is [they] drive up the liability number big enough to force all of these companies into bankruptcy, where they then get handed over — that is even more extreme than Bernie’s Green New Deal.”
The justices have already agreed to hear a case out of Louisiana where the state and several parishes sued oil companies, arguing their crude oil production during World War II caused climate damage to the coastline that now — decades later — demands recompense.
The oil companies were sued in state court, but argue they were acting as federal contractors during the war, so the disputes should be moved to federal court.
Federal law lets cases be removed to U.S. courts when they involve a federal officer or “any person acting under that officer,” and for actions “relating to any act under color of such office.”
“These cases belong in federal court,” the companies argue. “They involve efforts by local governments to sue federal contractors in state court, in part for actions undertaken to fulfill federal contracts.”
Lower courts have said the oil companies can’t show their oil production was sufficiently related to their federal contracts to have the cases moved to the U.S. courts.
Louisiana said there’s a reason the companies want out of state court. “They ostensibly fear juries composed of residents along the Louisiana coast,” the state said in a filing.
The case is Chevron v. Plaquemines Parish, and oral argument is scheduled for Jan. 12.
The justices have yet to agree to hear the other climate case, Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County.
It involves a lawsuit brought by Colorado communities that say oil companies’ global activities have led to extreme summer heat, precipitation changes, more damaging wildfires, higher ground-level ozone, more disease, forest die-off, and drought — in violation of state law.
The companies — with the Trump Justice Department’s backing — say it would be disastrous to let states exert control over energy activities well beyond their borders.
Read rest at Washington Times
