WASHINGTON—The city of Baltimore filed suit against ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies for climate change related damages two years ago. To date, multiple federal circuit courts have returned this and other climate damages and fraud cases to the state courts where they were filed. The Supreme Court decided today to take up an appeal on a narrow procedural issue, allowing the defendants to further delay proceedings on the issue of severe and rapidly accelerating climate impacts raised in the case.
Below is a statement by Kathy Mulvey, accountability campaign director in the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“Today, the U.S. Supreme Court took up a procedural motion related to a lawsuit brought by the city of Baltimore seeking to hold oil and gas companies accountable for the climate change harms their products have caused. As early as the 1960s, companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron knew their products were destructive yet knowingly deceived the public to inflate their profits and keep us hooked on fossil fuels. We’re hopeful that the Supreme Court will reject this transparent attempt by Big Oil to delay the inevitable: justice for communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis in a court of law.”