Climate lawsuits in Hawaii and Oregon will make their way through state courts after judges in the two states rejected oil companies’ bids to freeze the cases.
Fossil fuel producers had asked state judges to pause the cases until the Supreme Court reviews a question that could stymie the Hawaii and Oregon lawsuits and dozens of others that seek payment from the oil industry for contributing to climate change.
In Oregon, Multnomah Circuit Court Judge Adele Ridenour on Thursday swept aside the industry’s request, writing that the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision is “far from certain.”
Multnomah County, which is suing the industry for $50 billion for contributing to a deadly 2021 heat wave, has also shown it would be “prejudiced by a stay” of up to a year, Ridenour wrote. That could include losing “aging witnesses whose memories may be lost or further faded with the passage of time,” she wrote.
