News & Analysis
October 20, 2022
Nearly three dozen New York legislators sent a letter this week urging the Department of Justice to officially side with communities fighting to keep their climate accountability lawsuits against fossil fuel companies moving forward in state court.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court requested that the federal government weigh in on the issue as oil and gas companies ask the court to consider and reverse several defeats for the industry. Despite President Biden’s campaign pledge that his administration would “strategically support” climate lawsuits against polluters, the Justice Department has not acted to reverse its Trump-era support of Big Oil companies in such cases. That silence, the legislators wrote, “appears to be at odds with President Biden’s stated climate goals.”
“The need for the Department to weigh in cannot be overstated,” the legislators wrote. “The human, capital, and structural costs of preventing, mitigating, or recovering from this damage has fallen squarely on governments across the nation while entities responsible for climate change, like the fossil fuel industry, make record profits and escape accountability… The Department has a unique opportunity to set the tone for climate litigation, and consequently, our overall response to climate change, simply by adhering to the goals of its own Administration.”
In their letter, the state lawmakers urge DOJ to reverse its Trump-era backing of fossil fuel company defendants, which have continued to cite the previous administration's position in its relentless efforts to move climate liability cases from state to federal court, where the companies believe they have a greater chance of escaping accountability. But as the lawmakers explain, lower courts have unanimously agreed that the cases should move forward in state court, where they were filed.
The current appeal before the Supreme Court, on behalf of Exxon and Suncor, asks the court to review a 10th Circuit ruling allowing a lawsuit filed against them by Colorado communities to proceed in state court. As of last week, the court now faces a second appeal brought by Big Oil defendants — in this case, industry defendants ask the Supreme Court to reconsider the 4th Circuit’s ruling to keep Baltimore’s climate liability lawsuit in state court.
The New York lawmakers join a chorus of elected officials calling on the Biden administration to make good on the president’s campaign pledge, more than two years ago, to use his position to support climate accountability. On Tuesday, neighboring New Jersey became the latest state to file a climate fraud and damages lawsuit against Big Oil. The stakes couldn’t be higher — will this administration finally make its position clear?
