In two related amicus briefs filed Tuesday, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice encouraged the U.S. Supreme Court to allow climate lawsuits against American energy companies move forward – but hinted that the legal approach may run into serious obstacles. While arguing that climate suits are not yet ripe for Supreme Court review, both of US
Read More...Hawaii County appears to be gearing up to join the growing wave of municipalities suing energy companies – all to line their pockets – under the facade of addressing climate change, by opening the door to employing a dark-money funded law firm under Congressional investigation. In a moment of surprising candor while discussing grant programs
Read More...Just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey showed his appreciation for the industry that supplies about half of his state’s residents with the fuel to warm their houses in winter – a larger share than any other state – and about 41 percent of the state’s electricity generation by filing a
Read More...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
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