Today’s arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the City of Baltimore’s climate litigation case went as both parties expected – focused on an arcane procedural rule. The Supreme Court justices raised an array of questions, delving into the procedural questions at hand as well as the broader questions of the underlying case. In the
Read More...A review of key documents associated with the climate lawsuit filed by the city of Hoboken against major energy producers raise some big questions about the relationship between government leaders, one of the city’s retained law firms and a wealthy foundation that is paying for the case to proceed. The arrangement is also raising red
Read More...The city of Hoboken, New Jersey joined the so far fruitless climate litigation campaign on Wednesday, filing a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and the American Petroleum Institute. The lawsuit alleges the production, promotion and sale of fossil fuels by these companies and trade association caused a public nuisance that worsened the impacts
Read More...On Thursday, an intermediate appellate court in Texas reluctantly denied a petition filed by ExxonMobil that sought pre-suit discovery of attorney Matt Pawa and the California municipalities bringing public nuisance lawsuits against the company for the alleged damages caused by climate change. Although the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth ultimately dismissed the petition,
Read More...The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued two rulings in favor of California municipalities that are suing energy companies for alleged costs of combating climate change, allowing one case to proceed in state court while reversing the dismissal of another. While this is being cast as a procedural victory for the cities, the panel clearly
Read More...If you are looking for a press release from supporters of the New York Attorney General on the upcoming #ExxonKnew trial, look no further than Dana Drugmand’s recent piece in Climate Liability News. The blog, though structured like an actual news article, features exclusively one-sided commentary from some of the most active #ExxonKnew promoters and
Read More...Judge William Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island remanded Rhode Island’s lawsuit targeting 21 fossil fuel companies to state court on Monday. Rhode Island is seeking damages from energy companies to pay for the future costs of climate change. Compared to his peers who have judged similar climate litigation
Read More...Last year wasn’t great for lawyers or environmentalists in the courts. Even though cities, counties, and one fishermen’s association filed lawsuits against major energy companies, none of the cases have gotten very far in the court system and many were thrown out entirely. That doesn’t mean activists are taking the hint, though. In fact, at
Read More...Climate litigation in Canada is hitting more roadblocks after Mike Layton, a member of the Toronto city council, introduced a motion that asks the city to track costs related to climate change and study legal strategies to “recover costs” from energy companies. Like other attempts to get Canadian municipalities onto the climate litigation bandwagon, this
Read More...The U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) recently released two reports examining the impacts of climate liability lawsuits in the United States. Waking the Litigation Monster focuses on the misuse of public nuisance action, while Mitigating Municipality Litigation examines the growing trend of municipalities engaging in costly lawsuits against different industries. The reports detail the ramifications of such
Read More...Two associations representing business interests in the Canadian city of Victoria recently wrote letters to the city’s mayor, Lisa Helps, asking her to back away from a resolution calling for a class-action lawsuit from local municipalities demanding payment for climate related damages to local infrastructure. The Victoria lawsuit would have many hurdles to clear and
Read More...District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine’s investigation of ExxonMobil over climate change has opened the door to hedge funds and other monied interests to directly profit from the #ExxonKnew campaign. Last week, Racine went public with his plans to begin a formal inquiry into the energy company’s business practices. Racine is not the first
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