Maryland Lawsuits Against Big Oil Can Proceed to Discovery, Judge Rules

ANNAPOLIS, MD — Two lawsuits from Maryland communities that seek to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for the cost of climate damages they knowingly caused are now on track to proceed to discovery and trial, following a judge’s ruling last week. 

A Maryland state court judge rejected several motions from ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, and other companies to dismiss the 2021 lawsuits from Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, Maryland, which seek to make the companies pay costs associated with sea-level rise, flooding, and other local climate damages. The court deferred rulings on other motions “until trial and/or until a further dispositive motion is considered after facts are discovered which can or cannot support the allegations of the Plaintiffs' Complaint.” 

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

“This ruling is an important victory for Annapolis and Anne Arundel County’s efforts to hold Big Oil accountable for their climate lies and the damage they’ve caused to these communities. As these and similar cases advance toward trial, fossil fuel companies will be forced to hand over evidence of their decades-long climate deception during discovery and then explain that evidence to a jury. Big Oil’s days of escaping accountability are numbered.” 

Background on State and Local Climate Accountability Lawsuits Against Big Oil 

The attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia, as well as dozens of municipal governments in California, Colorado, Hawai`i, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico, and two tribal governments, have filed lawsuits to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about their products’ role in climate change. 

Several lawsuits — including those from the City of Baltimore and the State of New Jersey — are now awaiting similar rulings on the defendants’ motions to dismiss.