Delaware, Hoboken to Argue for Climate Lawsuits against Big Oil to Proceed in State Court on 6/21

Oil Giants Seek to Overturn District Court Rulings in Favor of Delaware and Hoboken, N.J.;  Four Other Circuit Courts Have Denied Oil Industry Arguments in Related Cases

PHILADELPHIA — On Tuesday, June 21, major oil and gas corporations will ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to overturn a pair of lower court rulings that would allow lawsuits seeking to hold the companies accountable for lying about their products’ role in causing climate change to proceed in state court. 

The two lawsuits, from the State of Delaware and the City of Hoboken, New Jersey, seek to make the companies — including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP — pay for a range of costly local climate damages, citing evidence of the corporations’ decades-long efforts to deceive the public about the central role of fossil fuels in climate change. Federal district court judges in Delaware and New Jersey ruled that each case could proceed in state court, where they were originally filed.  

Four separate federal circuit courts ruled this year that similar climate accountability lawsuits could proceed in state court, rejecting arguments from Exxon and other oil defendants that the cases be heard in federal court.  

What: Oral arguments in State of Delaware v. B.P. America Inc. et al. and City of Hoboken v. ExxonMobil Corp., et al. 

Where: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia. Streaming online here

When: 10 a.m. EST, Tuesday, June 21, 2022 

Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement: 

“Oil giants are desperate to avoid going to trial in state court because they know the evidence of their climate deception and corporate misconduct is so overwhelming. Unfortunately for them, courts across the country have agreed that climate accountability lawsuits filed in state court belong in state court. 

“While Big Oil fueled the climate crisis, lied about it, and made billions, communities like Delaware and Hoboken paid the price for stronger storms, rising seas, and other climate damages that will only get worse and more expensive. These communities deserve their day in state court to make polluters pay their fair share of the damages they knowingly caused.”