WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a series of disputes between energy companies and local governments over the impact of climate change in a loss for business interests.
The five cases, brought by cities and municipalities in Colorado, Maryland, California, Hawaii and Rhode Island, are part of efforts to hold businesses accountable for the effects of climate change.
The relatively narrow legal issue is whether the lawsuits should be heard in state court instead of federal court. Litigants care because of the widely held view that plaintiffs have a better chance of winning damage awards in state court.
“The resolution of those questions will determine whether state courts have the power to impose the costs of global climate change on the energy industry,” lawyers for the companies said in court papers filed in the Colorado case.
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The Biden administration urged the court not to hear the case, and in a change to the legal position taken by the Trump administration, said the lawsuit and others like it should be heard in state courts.
In all five cases, companies including BP, Chevron and Shell had lost in lower courts.
The municipalities’ lawsuits say they have been harmed by the affects of climate change caused by carbon emissions that the oil companies are heavily responsible for.
In an earlier case, the Supreme Court in 2021 ruled in favor of oil companies on a procedural issue in a similar lawsuit brought by the city of Baltimore.
On a separate legal issue, the court in a major ruling last year limited the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to address climate change under a provision of the Clean Air Act.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
