Climate Change Lawsuits Collapsing Like Dominoes

[Elderberry]

Inside Sources by Curt Levey  March 05, 2020

Climate change activists went to court in California recently trying to halt a long losing streak in their quest to punish energy companies for aiding and abetting the world’s consumption of fossil fuels.

A handful of California cities — big consumers of fossil fuels themselves — asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse the predictable dismissal of their public nuisance lawsuit seeking to pin the entire blame for global warming on five energy producers: BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell.

The cities hope to soak the companies for billions of dollars of damages, which they claim they’ll use to build sea walls, better sewer systems and the like in anticipation of rising seas and extreme weather that might result from climate change.

But no plaintiff has ever succeeded in bringing a public nuisance lawsuit based on climate change.

To the contrary, these lawsuits are beginning to collapse like dominoes as courts remind the plaintiffs that it is the legislative and executive branches — not the judicial branch — that have the authority and expertise to determine climate policy.

More: https://www.insidesources.com/climate-change-lawsuits-collapsing-like-dominoes/

[Elderberry]

Honolulu Uses Climate Lawfare To Sue Energy Companies

Climate Change Dispatch by Spencer Walrath 3/10/2020

https://climatechangedispatch.com/honolulu-climate-lawfare-energy-companies/

Today, the City & County of Honolulu filed its long-anticipated public nuisance lawsuit against ExxonMobil and other major oil and gas companies seeking to hold them responsible for the effects of climate change in the Aloha State.

Many similar lawsuits are pending as it’s debated whether they should be heard in state or federal court.

Josh Stanbro, Honolulu’s Chief Resilience Officer, referenced these lawsuits in today’s press conference, but he failed to mention that none of these lawsuits have been successful.

In fact, in two of the cases where the complaints were judged on their merits—New York City and Oakland/San Francisco, the complaints were dismissed.

Honolulu’s complaint is no different, resulting from a similarly flawed argument of public nuisance theory and driven by plaintiffs’ attorneys who want to profit while potentially leaving taxpayers with a big bill.

More at link.