Oil and gas companies that want to quash a flood of climate lawsuits are urging the Supreme Court to block the cases, arguing that the challenges are rapidly proliferating and pose a threat to an industry that is “vital to economic and national security.”
In a brief docketed with the high court last week, industry lawyers pushed back on the Biden administration’s efforts to defend climate liability lawsuits filed by more than two dozen local governments from Maine to Hawaii.
Separately, a group of Republican state attorneys general are continuing to push their request for the high court’s permission to block their Democratic colleagues from suing the fossil fuel industry. The approach tees up a battle between states — a type of legal fight that can be decided only by the Supreme Court.
The justices are scheduled to meet in a closed-door conference on Jan. 10 to determine whether to take up the oil industry’s appeal of a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that advanced Honolulu’s legal challenge against Shell and other oil companies. The justices have not yet scheduled a date to consider the request from the state attorneys general.
