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Delaware Takes Its Turn Arguing Its Climate Suit Belongs in State Court

Filed Under: Delaware Lawsuit, Latest News, Liability Litigation

By Karen Savage

Delaware told a federal court on Friday that its climate fraud case against several fossil fuel entities belongs in state court, where it was filed alleging multiple state law violations.

“The state asserts that removal was improper because the state’s complaint does not raise any federal claims, and the Delaware Superior Court is the appropriate forum for adjudicating the exclusively state-law claims,” the Delaware Attorney General’s Office wrote in a motion to remand the case back to state court.

In the suit, which was filed in September, Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings alleges that Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell, the American Petroleum Institute and several other fossil fuel companies have known for decades that their products cause climate change, but deliberately deceived the public about those harms and what they knew about them.

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DC: Oil Companies Are Twisting Climate Lawsuit to Keep It in Federal Court

Filed Under: Latest News, Uncategorized, Washington DC Lawsuit

By Karen Savage

In trying to get the District of Columbia’s climate fraud case against them moved to federal court, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell are mischaracterizing the suit and do not have a reasonable argument, according to D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine.

In a brief filed Monday, Racine said the case—which accuses the companies of violating D.C.’s Consumer Protection Act with a coordinated, decades-long campaign to mislead the public about the risks their products pose to the climate—belongs in state court, where it was filed in June.

The companies moved the case to federal court shortly after it was filed and argue that Racine is attempting to use the consumer protection act “as a vehicle to force defendants to discontinue or reduce their extraction, production, and sale of fossil fuels around the world.”

Racine pushed back on that contention, telling the court that the companies’ argument for federal jurisdiction “distorts the district’s complaint in an effort to convert this case into something it is not.”  

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To Shake Conn. Climate Suit, Exxon Says It Does Not Sell Gas There

Filed Under: Connecticut Lawsuit, Latest News

By Karen Savage

ExxonMobil told a federal court that a climate fraud lawsuit filed against it by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong should be dismissed because the company does not sell gas in the state. 

“ExxonMobil has not owned or operated service stations (including those branded ‘Exxon’ and ‘Mobil’) in Connecticut since 2011,” the oil giant said in a motion to dismiss filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

Exxon, despite its claims, lists more than 200 “Exxon and Mobil service stations” in Connecticut on its website. The company unsuccessfully attempted to use this same claim—that Exxon stations were actually independent businesses unaffiliated with the oil giant—to invalidate a Massachusetts climate investigation against it.

Tong filed suit in Connecticut state court against the oil giant in September, alleging that Exxon conducted an ongoing, systematic campaign of lies and deception to deceive residents in his state about climate change. The suit alleges several state law violations, including willful violations of Connecticut’s unfair trade practices and consumer protection laws. The company moved the case to federal court in October, but the state is appealing.

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