Supreme Court sounds wary of state-based climate change suits against oil producers
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Set us as preferred WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices sounded wary Monday of state-by-state lawsuits that could impose huge damage verdicts on energy producers for the impact of global climate change.Instead, several of them suggested these local and state claims may be blocked by the federal Clean Air Act.“Interstate air and water pollution are matters for federal law,” said Justice Brett M.Kavanaugh.
“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.This kind of pollution is a federal matter unless Congress says otherwise.”Justice Elena Kagan appeared to agree.
State-by-state lawsuits “get in way of how Congress decided to regulate greenhouse gases,” she said.At issue before the court was the question of whether cities and states may sue oil and gas producers for the damages inflicted by climate change.
California and nearly three dozen states and municipalities have filed such claims, but none have gone to trial.Politics The outcome of the Colorado case could affect California’s 2023 lawsuit against the five largest oil companies and other similar litigation.Last year, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Boulder County may sue for damages in a local court.The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from the oil industry backed by the Trump administration.
Its lawyers argued that the Constitution and federal law do not allow for such claims to be resolved in local courts.Chief Justice John G.Roberts sounded skeptical of opening the door to a wave of climate change lawsuits.
“There will be 50 different cities.How would that work out?” he asked a lawyer representing Boulder.For much of the two-hour argument, the justices struggled over whether federal law imposes a limit on such lawsuits, or instead whether states and their judges are free to seek damages for the harm they have suffered.
They did not si...