Article written by John Dernbach, Patrick Parenteau, via https://theconversation.com on 23 May 2023
Their case – one of more than two dozen involving U.S. cities, counties and states suing the oil industry over climate change – just got a break from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Supreme Court could have killed these cases. Not surprisingly, the oil companies have thrown their vast legal resources into fighting these cases.
The oil companies had “removed” the cases from state court to federal court, arguing that damage lawsuits for climate change go beyond the limits of state law and are governed by federal law.
That theory would have derailed all five cases – because there is no federal common law for greenhouse gases.
The Supreme Court refused, holding that the federal Clean Air Act displaced federal common law for these gases.