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

November 17, 2020 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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Exxon Tries Same Arguments to Get Minn. Climate Suit to Federal Court

November 12, 2020 Filed Under: Latest News, Minnesota Lawsuit

By Karen Savage

ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and Koch Industries say Minnesota’s climate fraud lawsuit filed against them belongs in federal court.

In a brief filed Monday, the defendants rolled out many of the same arguments for federal jurisdiction that have so far failed to convince courts in dozens of similar cases around the country.

The API and the companies argue that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is trying to “use Minnesota law as a vehicle to force defendants to discontinue or reduce their extraction, production, promotion, and sale of fossil fuels around the world.”

Ellison, emphasizing that his case centers on consumer fraud, not emissions, said the defendants are misrepresenting the case.

“This case does not seek to limit the extraction of fossil fuels or otherwise regulate greenhouse-gas emissions,” Ellison wrote in a brief filed in September arguing that the case should be heard in state court, where it was filed in June.

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Oil Companies Move Maui County Climate Lawsuit to Federal Court

November 3, 2020 Filed Under: Latest News

_{By Karen Savage}

Exxon, Shell, Chevron, BP and more than a dozen other fossil fuel companies say a climate liability lawsuit against them by Maui County belongs in federal court.

Maui County filed the suit last month in state court and, following the pattern they have used in dozens of other similar lawsuits, industry attorneys filed a removal notice in U.S. District Court. Chevron, representing all of the defendants, said the case involves federal issues and should be heard in federal court.

The companies recycled many of the same arguments they have used in previous attempts to get the other climate change-related lawsuits filed against them by municipalities across the country heard in federal court, where they think they have a better chance of getting them dismissed.

Thus far, those arguments have failed.

Several federal courts have determined that the cases belong in state courts, where most have been filed. The lower court rulings have been upheld by the Fourth, Ninth and Tenth Circuit Courts, as well as by the First Circuit, which last month ordered the companies to reimburse Rhode Island for costs associated with their appeal.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a technicality related to whether the Fourth Circuit properly reviewed a lower court ruling that Baltiore’s case belongs in state court. The high court will not consider the merits of the jurisdictional arguments or the merits of the allegations, but the outcome could determine where all of the cases will be heard.

The companies say Maui County is seeking to “overturn decades of federal energy policy and threatens the reliable, affordable supply of energy on which this country, and the world, depends.”

The county’s suit includes state law claims of public and private nuisance, strict liability for failure to warn, negligent failure to warn and trespass and seeks compensation for local harm. It does not seek to regulate the companies or to determine federal energy policy.

Maui County’s next step will likely be to ask the federal court to move the case back to state court. If the court agrees, the fossil fuel companies could ask for appellate review, however that could be a long shot. The Ninth Circuit has already affirmed a federal court ruling that a similar case filed by six California municipalities belongs in state court.