Judge Dismisses Climate Suits Targeting Big Oil Companies
26 Juin 2018 - 6:04AM
Dow Jones News
By Bradley Olson and Timothy Puko
A federal judge on Monday dismissed lawsuits by the cities of
San Francisco and Oakland alleging that five of the world's largest
oil companies should pay to protect the cities' residents from the
impacts of climate change.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted a motion by the
companies -- BP PLC, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp.,
ConocoPhillips and Chevron Corp. -- to dismiss the suits, ruling
that while global warming was a real threat, it must be fixed "by
our political branches."
"The dangers raised in the complaints are very real," he wrote.
"But those dangers are worldwide. Their causes are worldwide. The
benefits of fossil fuels are worldwide. The problem deserves a
solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district
judge or jury in a public nuisance case."
The ruling is a blow to an emerging legal campaign by cities and
municipalities that are trying to argue that oil and gas companies
created a public nuisance by producing fossil fuels they knew would
result in harmful emissions. New York City and several other local
governments in California, Washington and Colorado have also sued
on similar grounds.
"Reliable, affordable energy is not a public nuisance but a
public necessity," said R. Hewitt Pate, Chevron's general counsel.
"Using lawsuits to vilify the men and women who provide the energy
we all need is neither honest nor constructive."
A Shell spokesman said the company was pleased with the ruling.
Representatives for Exxon and BP didn't immediately respond to
requests for comment. A ConocoPhillips spokesman didn't have an
immediate response.
Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker said the city was
"disappointed" by the ruling and is weighing an appeal. "These
defendants must be held accountable for misleading the American
people" about climate change, said Ms. Parker.
A spokesman for San Francisco, John Coté, said the city would
decide on its "next steps" shortly.
"We're pleased that the court recognized that the science of
global warming is no longer in dispute," he said. "Our litigation
forced a public court proceeding on climate science, and now these
companies can no longer deny it is real and valid."
The suits by San Francisco and Oakland sought to force the
companies to pay for infrastructure, such as sea walls, that they
expect to need due to rising sea levels and other changes linked to
a changing climate. The cities didn't specify how much they were
seeking but said the costs could run into the billions of
dollars.
Defendants in the Oakland and San Francisco cases argued that
Congress has given the Environmental Protection Agency the
authority to regulate pollution effects under the Clean Air Act,
and that the cases impinged on the agency's powers.
Judge Alsup said the court "fully accepts the vast scientific
consensus" that the burning of fossil fuels is leading global
temperatures to increase and to "accelerated sea level rise."
Yet he highlighted previous legal rulings which found the Clean
Air Act, which grants the Environmental Protection Agency the
authority to set emissions standards, displaces federal common law
suits related to greenhouse gas emissions.
"Courts must also respect and defer to the other co-equal
branches of government when the problem at hand clearly deserves a
solution best addressed by those branches," he wrote.
Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of
Manufacturers, which has supported the companies in the cases,
praised the judge's decision.
"Other municipalities around the country who have filed similar
lawsuits should take note as those complaints are likely to end the
same way," he said.
Write to Bradley Olson at Bradley.Olson@wsj.com and Timothy Puko
at tim.puko@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 25, 2018 23:49 ET (03:49 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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