WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it won’t hear an appeal from oil and gas companies trying to block lawsuits seeking to hold the industry liable for billions of dollars in damage linked to climate change.
The industry has faced a series of cases alleging it deceived the public about how fossil fuels contribute to climate change. Governments in states including California, Colorado and New Jersey are seeking billions of dollars in damages from things like wildfires, rising sea levels and severe storms. The lawsuits come during a wave of legal actions in the U.S. and worldwide seeking to leverage action on climate change through the courts.
In Hawaii, Sunoco and Shell appealed to the Supreme Court after losing in front of the state’s highest court on a lawsuit from the city of Honolulu. Other companies that have faced lawsuits elsewhere include Chevron, Exxon Mobil and BP.
The companies argue emissions are a national issue that should instead be fought over in federal court, where they’ve successfully had suits tossed out.
“The stakes in this case could not be higher,” attorneys wrote in court documents. The lawsuits “present a serious threat to one of the nation’s most vital industries.”
Sunoco is based in Dallas, and Shell is based in London and has U.S. headquarters in Houston.
The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said declining to hear the Honolulu case now means the companies could face more lawsuits from activists trying to “make themselves the nation’s energy regulators.”
“I hope that the Court will hear the issue someday, for the sake of constitutional accountability and the public interest,” said Adam White, a senior fellow at the institute.
The Democratic Biden administration had weighed in at the justices’ request and urged them to reject the case, saying it’s fair to keep it in state court at this point — though the administration acknowledged that the companies could eventually prevail.
The incoming Republican Trump administration is expected to take a sharply different view of environmental law and energy production.
Honolulu argued it’s made a strong case under state laws against deceptive marketing and it should be allowed to play out there. “Deceptive commercial practices fall squarely within the core interests and historic powers of the states,” attorneys wrote.
Environmental regulations, meanwhile, have not always fared well overall before the conservative-majority court. In 2022, the justices limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. In June, the court halted the agency’s air-pollution-fighting “good neighbor” rule.