A Pennsylvania judge has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to hold the oil and gas industry financially accountable for climate change in one of the nation’s leading fossil-fuel-producing states.
Bucks County Judge Stephen Corr late Friday dismissed the county’s climate lawsuit against six of the largest energy companies, finding it raises questions about greenhouse gas emissions that can’t be addressed by state law.
“Today we join a growing chorus of state and federal courts across the United States, singing from the same hymnal, in concluding that the claims raised by Bucks County are not judiciable by any state court in Pennsylvania,” Corr wrote, citing a number of recent decisions that have rejected similar lawsuits. “Our federal structure does not allow Pennsylvania law, or any state’s law, to address the claims raised in Bucks County’s complaint.”
The county just north of Philadelphia filed suit in March 2024, accusing some of the largest U.S. fossil fuel companies, their subsidiaries and the American Petroleum Institute of violating state consumer protection laws by deceiving the public about the dangers of burning fossil fuels.
