News & Analysis
October 5, 2022
In the latest in a long string of defeats for Big Oil companies, a federal district court judge last week ruled that climate accountability lawsuits from Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, Maryland, could proceed in state court, where they were filed.
The two coastal communities are seeking to make ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, the American Petroleum Institute and other oil and gas corporations pay their fair share of climate damages fueled by the industry’s products and deception. Their lawsuits explain how the two local governments face a growing financial burden to protect residents, businesses, and infrastructure from sea-level rise, floods, and other worsening climate damages.
“We would not have to spend the kind of money we are forced to spend but for the actions of the fossil fuel industry,” said Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley when he announced the city’s suit in 2021. “This lawsuit shifts the costs back to where they belong, on those whose knowledge, deception and pursuit of profits brought these dangers to our shores.”
Last week, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ruled that the lawsuits, which were brought under the state’s Consumer Protection Act and common law, could go forward in state court. She rejected Big Oil’s request to move the cases to federal court, where the companies believe they can escape accountability.
“This Court does not believe the public interest is served by further prolonging the consideration of the actual merits and believes there is substantial public interest in moving these cases towards disposition,” wrote Gallagher.
The ruling is the most recent victory for states and municipalities seeking to hold oil and gas corporations accountable for their climate deception. Five federal appeals courts and more than 10 federal district courts have unanimously agreed that climate accountability lawsuits filed in state court belong in state court. As the plaintiff communities inch closer to finally putting Big Oil companies on trial for their climate lies, the industry is getting desperate – even asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn one of the rulings against them.
But as Judge Gallagher, a Trump appointee, noted, “the majority of federal district and circuit courts around the country [have] conclude[d] that these state law claims for private misconduct belong in state court.”
Big Oil has delayed justice long enough. It’s time these communities get their day to present the evidence of the fossil fuel industry’s climate deception in state court — and hold them accountable.
Image by alliecat1881 on Flickr
