Big Oil spends a lot of time fighting lawsuits, as dozens of cities and states over the last decade have sued these major climate polluters. Claimants want to hold fossil fuel producers accountable for their role in causing the climate crisis. Companies like Exxon and Chevron, the applicants argue, knowingly … [continued]
Puerto Rico has joined many others in suing fossil fuel companies for the damage they caused by knowingly selling climate altering products.
Yesterday marked one year since the precedent-setting court ruling in the Netherlands, which ordered Shell to cut its activities’ carbon emissions by 45 percent compared to 2019 levels to align with the Paris climate agreement. The ruling was a landmark for climate litigation, demonstrating the potential power of the courts to help … [continued]
History was made in Hawaii recently when a state judge ruled that a lawsuit seeking damages from major oil and gas companies for their climate disinformation campaigns can move forward in state court. The ruling sets an important precedent that the fossil fuel industry has been fighting to prevent in similar cases across the … [continued]
By Elliott Negin Four years ago, Boulder, Colorado, sued ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy — owner of the only oil refinery in the state — for climate change-related damages and adaptation expenses. Boulder and its co-plaintiffs, Boulder County and San Miguel County, home to Telluride, estimated the damage caused by extreme weather events … [continued]
Originally published by Union of Concerned Scientists, The Equation. By Elliott Negin President Joe Biden kicked off the United Nations’ 26th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Glasgow, Scotland, earlier this month by warning delegates that there is only a “brief window left before us to raise our ambitions, and to [rise] to meet the … [continued]
The Supreme Court has narrowly ruled in favor of oil companies seeking to avoid liability for the costs of climate change, but litigation in this case, brought by the city of Baltimore, and in cases brought by states and municipalities across the country, is expected to continue. The 7-1 majority … [continued]
Anne Arundel County, Maryland, is suing more than two dozen oil and gas companies for covering up what they knew to be the truth of their products’ impact on global warming and, seeking to hold them liable for the “costs and consequences” of climate change. Anne Arundel is home to … [continued]
This summer Connecticut, Delaware and Minnesota joined some 20 states, cities and counties across the country that have filed climate change lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, charging that they have been aware of the threat their products pose to the climate for decades and deliberately misled the public about the reality and seriousness of global warming.
Judges appear more comfortable ruling on matters of public health than litigating climate science. In a landmark case on the EPA’s role in regulating carbon pollution, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia famously said, “I told you before I’m not a scientist. That’s why I don’t want to have to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth.” When jurists don’t want to reckon with science, it’s bad news for climate lawsuits.
