By Karen Savage

Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine urged the U.S. District Court to follow what other circuit judges have already done around the country and send his climate fraud lawsuit against ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell to state court.  

“Four other district courts and three courts of appeal have also rejected defendants’ same arguments for removal jurisdiction in analogous cases where defendants were parties,” Racine said in a brief filed Monday.

Fossil fuel companies being sued in climate change-related lawsuits have attempted to use many of the same arguments across the country. The companies want the cases heard in federal court, where they think they have a better chance of success. 

Thus far, all of those arguments have been rejected and many of the cases are currently proceeding in state court, where they were initially filed.

Washington D.C.’s suit, which was filed in June, alleges the companies knew as early as the 1950s that emissions from their products caused climate change, but instead of warning consumers, they sought to protect their profits. The companies have been shown to have engaged in a decades-long campaign to cast doubt on climate research.

The city is asking the court for an injunction to prevent the companies from continuing the violations and to compensate the city for damage they have caused.