Multnomah County’s experimental climate lawsuit keeps getting weirder. After years of pressure from climate activists to add gas utilities to the list of industries targeted by lawfare, the Oregon County finally granted their wish by adding a local utility company to its complaint, which already features over a dozen defendants. It’s a déjà vu moment
Read More...With Election Day just a few weeks away, the one thing that is certain about Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ energy policy is that…no one is certain about where she really stands. EID and media outlets alike have highlighted Harris’ marked shift from her first presidential campaign in 2019, which saw an embrace
Read More...Climate lawsuits are unquestionably about the policy aims of wealthy funders – a state judge in Maryland made this clear in her recent dismissal of Baltimore’s climate lawsuit, describing it as it an attempt to change national climate policy through “the back door.” Now, a new Congressional report first published by the Washington Free Beacon
Read More...One year after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state’s climate lawsuit at New York Climate Week, on Monday the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta announced another lawsuit at this year’s activist confab, this time targeting plastics recycling. With two public nuisance lawsuits against energy providers over the last two years, it’s clear Bonta is fully committed
Read More...South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson last week urged a court to throw out Charleston’s climate lawsuit against energy producers – marking a unique instance of a state attorney general calling out the lack of merits of a municipality’s case. In a amicus brief filed on September 4, Wilson cited the recent dismissal of Baltimore’s lawsuit and noted that the lawsuit
Read More...Recently uncovered outside counsel agreements between New Jersey, Chicago, and plaintiffs’ law firms provide fresh details about the millions of dollars private firms stand to make if they prevail in their mission to “take down” American oil and gas companies. Remember, cities and states have gone to great lengths to hide these contracts from their
Read More...In a massive loss for the nationally-coordinated climate litigation campaign, a Maryland state judge dismissed the City of Baltimore’s lawsuit against energy companies last week. The ruling firmly rejects the cornerstone legal theory behind the litigation, explaining that state law cannot be used to advance national energy policy and address a global phenomenon such as
Read More...This week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed an amended complaint in the state’s climate lawsuit doubling down on greenwashing allegations and appealing to a new state law that gives the attorney general a backdoor to seek damages in the form of oil companies’ profits without even attempting to show harm to California consumers. Facing
Read More...UPDATE (4/30/24): Today, Joint staff from the Senate Budget Committee and the House Oversight Committee released their long-awaited report concluding a “nearly three year-long” investigation into oil companies. Spoiler alert: as E&E News put it the first time around, the investigation continues to show that “oil and gas companies, for the most part, want to
Read More...After years of environmental activists circling Pennsylvania officials in hopes they’d be the “cherry on top” of their lawfare campaign, Bucks County took the bait and filed a suit on Monday against essential energy producers. But many questions remain, including why the suit was debated quietly with little evident public input and to what extent
Read More...American energy companies asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to overturn a ruling that allowed Honolulu’s climate lawsuit against the industry to move forward. This is the first time the Supreme Court has had the opportunity to tackle the merits of the cases head-on, marking a milestone in the litigation campaign. Energy companies have
Read More...Explosive new documents have exposed details of the Rockefellers’ coordinated effort to convince the New York Attorney General’s office (NYAG) to launch an investigation into ExxonMobil in 2015. As Fox News reports: “Left-wing nonprofits quietly coordinated a first-of-its-kind investigation into Big Oil led by the New York State Attorney General (NYAG) years ago, sparking dozens of current climate lawsuits, according to
Read More...Weeks after a federal judge in California ruled a climate lawsuit brought by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations belongs in federal court, the group has voluntarily dismissed its case. It appears that the plaintiff and its law firm Sher Edling would rather dismiss the case than risk an unfavorable defeat in federal court. The move represents
Read More...The wealthy national climate litigation campaign has its sights set on Pennsylvania, yet recent action shows this isn’t the only oil and gas producing state activists are targeting. New moves prove that the Buckeye State is also a target for the litigation-hungry – all while the industry helps to boost Ohio’s economy, provide good-paying jobs for thousands of
Read More...Two high-ranking lawmakers have announced a probe into plaintiffs’ law firm Sher Edling regarding who funds and supports the firm’s “barrage of lawsuits aimed at bankrupting oil and gas companies.” A letter from Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-TX) and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) to the San-Francisco based firm reads:
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