Court victory keeps Vermont’s climate case on track for trial

Vermont’s lawsuit seeking to hold Big Oil companies accountable for lying to consumers about the dangers of fossil fuels will move one step closer toward trial after a state judge rejected the companies’ arguments to dismiss the case. The ruling adds the Green Mountain state to a growing list of communities across the country that have triumphed over Big Oil’s motions to dismiss climate accountability lawsuits brought against them. Vermont is now on track to enter the discovery phase, during which the State can obtain additional evidence of Big Oil’s climate lies that could be presented to a jury at trial. 

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office filed the lawsuit in 2021, charging ExxonMobil, Shell, and other major polluters with lying to the public about the climate harms of their fossil fuel products and ultimately denying Vermont consumers the opportunity to make informed choices. The consumer protection lawsuit asserts that Big Oil’s deceptive marketing misled the public, delayed urgent climate action, and created costly and hazardous conditions for Vermont residents, such as deadly floods exacerbated by climate change. 

In late December, Vermont Superior Court Judge Megan J. Shafritz denied all of Big Oil’s motions to dismiss the case, including the polluters’ claims that their public comments and advertising did not impact consumers’ decisions to buy their fossil fuel products, and that the companies’ lies were protected by free speech. 

Vermont is seeking to make Exxon and its peers stop lying about the dangers of their products, including requiring a disclosure at every point of sale in the state about the role of fossil fuels in climate change, and to disgorge all of the profits obtained while acting unlawfully — a remedy that Exxon tried and failed to get dismissed at the early stage of the litigation. 

“Vermont consumers were given false and misleading information about the dramatic effects of these products on the climate,” former Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan said when his office first filed the lawsuit. “Vermonters have a right to accurate information in order to make informed decisions about the products they purchase.”