July 19, 2018
Today a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by New York City against five major fossil fuel companies for the costs of climate impacts, less than a month after a federal judge dismissed climate lawsuits brought by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, California. In his decision, Judge Keenan ruled that climate change should be addressed by the executive and legislative branches, rather than the courts.
For those following this case closely, this decision is not a surprise. In June, Judge Keenan heard arguments on a motion to dismiss filed by attorneys on behalf of ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Conoco Phillips during which Judge Keenan seemed to question the central argument of the case by focusing on earlier attempts to sue oil and gas companies over their emissions, which were rejected by higher courts.
Lisa Anne Hamilton, Director of CIEL’s Climate & Energy Program:
There are two troubling similarities between Judge Keenan’s decision and Judge Alsup’s recent decision to dismiss the San Francisco and Oakland, California cases:
First, both judges ignore the evidence – evidence that demonstrates that from as far back as the 1960s the defendants have expended a staggering amount of resources studying the link between the sale of their products and catastrophic disruptions in global temperatures. As CIEL has documented in our Smoke & Fumes exposé and Crack in the Shell analysis, the Carbon Majors were aware of the direct link between the sale of their products and climate change. Worse, they then spent millions of dollars to knowingly, willingly, and intentionally deceive the public and legislators about these harms while also undermining efforts to develop safer, viable, and more efficient alternatives.
Second, both decisions suggest that the plaintiffs are asking the Court to solve climate change. Here again this conclusion overlooks the core question of both cases: who pays for the billions of dollars of damages being incurred as extreme weather events become more frequent and more severe? Climate litigation will not solve climate change, but it will hold its biggest contributors accountable for decades of misconduct. Arguments that suggest ‘we are all complicit’ in causing climate change fail to consider that Big Oil has directed the sale, consumption, and public dependence on fossil fuels at every turn, over decades. The scale of climate change-exacerbated weather catastrophes, in the form of more powerful and frequent storms, unprecedented wildfires, sea level rise, flooding, droughts, and heat waves, are evidence that this is much bigger than personal consumer choice. The Carbon Majors have knowingly and willingly placed a harmful product into the marketplace and enlisted every tactic possible to avoid regulation or scrutiny. The body of evidence into the fossil fuel industry’s role in the climate crisis continues to come to light, and the climate accountability movement is gathering momentum, in cities, states, and countries around the world. Today’s decision is disappointing, but this story is far from over.