“The stakes are formidable.” California communities’ climate lawsuits, key hearing this Wed, allege fossil fuel companies actively worked to discredit climate science and block limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

California communities suing Big Oil over climate change face a key hearing Wednesday by Susanne Rust, Feb 5, 2020, The LA Times

Sea-level rise. Floods. Storm damage. For nearly three years, a group of California communities has been suing fossil fuel companies for their contribution to climate change and the damages resulting from it.

On Wednesday, in Pasadena, a key federal court hearing could decide the fate of those lawsuits.

Two separate coalitions of California local governments are arguing to have their suits heard in California state courts, which compared to their federal counterparts, tend to be more favorable to “nuisance” lawsuits.

The fossil fuel companies want the cases heard in federal courts, arguing they are more appropriate venues for disputes that have international dimensions.

For both sides, the stakes are formidable.

“A decision in favor of the cities would not only green-light these cases to move forward… it would clear the way for a potential wave of filings in the Ninth Circuit,” said Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity, a climate change advocacy group supporting the local governments.

The California lawsuits are part of a wave of litigation against fossil fuel companies, alleging they not only contributed to climate change but actively worked to discredit climate science and block limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

The litigants hope the courts will act in the absence of meaningful governmental action, but so far, their success rate has been mixed.

In 2018, a federal judge dismissed New York City’s lawsuit against five oil companies. Last month, a federal appeals court dismissed litigation brought by a group of young people seeking a ruling that might compel the federal government to reduce emissions.

In California, both lawsuits are similar. They want companies such as Chevron and ExxonMobil to pay for infrastructure and property damage caused by sea level riseand other climate change impacts, as well as the costly adaptations required for safeguarding. And although the two suits will be heard by the same 9th District Circuit Court panel on Wednesday, they’ve had very different trajectories.

In one case, filed by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland against the fossil fuel companies, Judge William Alsup of the Federal District Court in San Francisco dismissed the suit. After instructing both parties to provide him with a tutorial on climate change science, he ruled the courts were not the proper place to deal with issues of global scale.

The cities appealed that decision. And they’ll argue Wednesday that the case should be heard and moved to state court.

In the other case, which was filed by the cities of Imperial Beach, Richmond and Santa Cruz, as well as the Northern California counties of San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Marin, a federal judge, Vince Chhabria, also of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, remanded the case to state court.

The fossil fuel companies, led by Chevron, appealed that decision.

Casey Norton, a spokesman for ExxonMobil, would not comment directly on the case, but pulled quotes from the fossil fuel companies’ opening brief, including this one: “Federal common law, not state law, must govern such disputes because of the ‘overriding federal interest in the need for a uniform rule of decision.’”

Sean Comey, a Chevron spokesman, referred to the same filing, and highlighted this quote: “State tort law is not an appropriate vehicle — and state courts are not an appropriate forum — for regulating worldwide energy policy or punishing lawful, global commercial activity that is vital to every sector of the global economy.” [Some commerce. Killing the human species, and taking many other species along with us and when not killing us, causing horrific suffering all so that a few rich can get richer]

But the cities and counties say the issue is local and therefore should be considered by a state court. They also say it isn’t about regulating the fossil fuel companies, but about getting them to pay for the harm they have caused. [Fix the aquifer you illegally frac’d Encana (now Ovintiv, aka Ovarytits)!]

“This isn’t about changing laws. It’s about getting them to pay for the damages they knowingly created,” said Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina.

Dedina said Imperial Beach is getting pummeled by waves and sea level rise, and flooding has become an increasing threat to coastal areas. He noted that while the fossil fuel companies rake in billions of dollars every year, his cash-strapped city is likely to end up spending millions repairing damaged infrastructure such as roads and beaches, as well as millions more protecting its four miles of shoreline.

He said his city’s annual general funds budget of roughly $19 million is roughly the same as the yearly compensation for Darren Woods, ExxonMobil’s chief executive.

Tom Butt, mayor of Richmond, said the situation is similar in his San Francisco Bay city, where Chevron has a refinery. In recent years, his views on climate change threats have changed.

“When we first went down this road it was sea level rise I was worried about,” he said. “Now it’s the fires, and the smoke that has come down into the city. It’s a major disruption. We’ve had to close schools and businesses.”

Pointing to reporting from the Los Angeles Times and Inside Climate News, the local governments’ attorneys argued that fossil fuel companies not only knew about climate change for decades, but actively tried to mislead the public and governments about the science — and its potential effects.

“This is just like tobacco, lead paint, asbestos, opioids, what have you… where substantial evidence has developed that they knew about this a long time ago and instead of disclosing it or trying to do something about it, they went all out and tried to hide effects and sell it,” said Butt.

Other local and state governments across the country are also actively seeking damage compensation from the fossil fuel companies, including Baltimore; Boulder, Col.; King County, Wash.; New York and Rhode Island.

The Pacific Coast Federation of Fisheries Assns., a trade organization, has also sued for damages.

“There is a lot at stake in this appeal,” said Sean Hecht, co-executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law. “If the cases can move forward in state court, the courts are likely to take the plaintiffs’ claims seriously, and this may affect prospects for cases in other states as well.”

Hecht’s environmental law clinic provided legal analysis for the plaintiffs in some of the cases.

He said a 2017 ruling by the California Court of Appeal held former lead paint manufacturers liable to a collection of California local governments that sued them, in a “nuisance” case similar in structure to these.

“Plaintiffs in the climate liability cases are pursuing a similar theory, and there are real parallels between the facts here and the facts in the lead-paint cases,” he said.

Douglas Kysar, a professor at Yale Law School, said the arguments made Wednesday are unlikely to sway any judges, who are likely more interested in the briefs and other filings already submitted.

However, the hearings provide the rest of us an opportunity to ask questions about what the future holds for climate liability, he said.

“If the industry is not going to help shoulder the massive cost of adapting to climate change, who is going to be left holding the bag?” [WE ALL KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT.]

A ruling is expected before the end of the year.

Refer also to:

Judicial Tragedy: U.S. District Judge William Alsup wanted to “stick to the science” and avoid politics, presided over standing room only tutorial on climate change, but let big oil off using politics. Science is on humanity’s side, the law is not.

Exxon Mobil Lawsuits: Is there access to “justice” in North America for humanity when it comes to harms by the oil & gas industry? Or is “justice” reserved for the polluters? “Clearly the government is defending against the best interest of the public by cozying up to the industry.”

Rhode Island vs 21 Oil & Gas Companies: Judge William Smith characterized operations “leading to all kinds of displacement, death (extinctions, even), and destruction…. Defendants understood the consequences of their activity decades ago…. But instead of sounding the alarm, Defendants went out of their way to becloud the emerging scientific consensus and further delay changes – however existentially necessary – that would in any way interfere with their multi-billion-dollar profits.”

Encana, one of the world’s 47 most polluting companies, named “morally responsible” for death & destruction; First time a human rights body stated fossil fuel companies can be found legally and morally liable for harms linked to climate change.

BC Tap Water Alliance Press Release: Attribution Science Proves Now is the Time for Canadians to Step Up and Sue the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Alberta Energy Regulator for Cumulative Fraud

Lawsuits in USA testing “attribution science.” Researchers can link weather events to emissions and companies responsible. “This body of literature…tells us that dangerous climate change is upon us, and people are suffering and dying…and it’s going to get worse.” For any potential uncertainty about climate attribution, there’s at least one truth that should override the rest: Fossil fuel companies “were aware decades ago what trouble climate change would be.”

Lawsuit Targets Feds’ Failure to Consider Colorado Fracking’s Climate Harm. “And despite several court decisions making it clear that this failure is illegal, the BLM continues to allow oil and gas leasing to go forward without considering the climate impacts.”

Ruling now available in English: Dutch gov’t loses appeal against Urgenda; Holland’s high court rules gov’t must reduce emissions to protect rights of citizens

This entry was posted in Other Legal. Bookmark the permalink.