Federal Court Says Climate Case Against Big Oil Can Stay Local

Yet another federal appeals court on Tuesday delivered a blow to Big Oil's efforts to evade responsibility for the climate emergency, ruling that the District of Columbia's consumer protection lawsuit against fossil fuel giants can proceed in D.C. Superior Court.

As dozens of U.S. communities and states have sought to make polluters pay through climate liability suits in recent years, companies have attempted to move the cases from local to federal courts, where they are far more likely to be dismissed.

This ruling stems from a case first filed in the local court by D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb's predecessor, Karl Racine, in 2020. He accused profit-hungry BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell of violating the district's Consumer Protection Procedures Acts with decades of campaigns to "deceive and mislead the public about the threat of global warming and the damaging nature of their fossil fuel products."

Judge Neomi Rao—an appointee of former President Donald Trump, a fossil fuel industry ally—wrote for the panel Tuesday that "the district brought suit exclusively under the D.C. Code, and the companies have provided no basis for federal jurisdiction."

"The people of D.C. deserve their day in court to hold Big Oil accountable."

With its unanimous ruling, the D.C. Circuit is now the eighth federal appeals court to reject industry arguments—joining the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th, 9th, and 10th circuits, according to the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which tracks such cases.

"Judges from across the ideological spectrum have once again unanimously rejected Big Oil's desperate arguments to avoid facing the evidence of their climate lies in local courts," CCI president Richard Wiles said in response to the decision.

"It's time for these companies to give up their losing arguments to escape the courtroom and instead prepare to explain their well-documented history of lying about the dangers of fossil fuels to members of a jury," he added. "The people of D.C. deserve their day in court to hold Big Oil accountable."

Throughout this year, the right-wing U.S. Supreme has repeatedly refused to aid the fossil fuel industry's attempts to shift cases to federal court. Meanwhile, the lawsuits have continued to mount, with officials from Oregon's Multnomah County and California filing suits against oil and gas companies in June and September, respectively.

In an end-of-year roundup released Tuesday, CCI details other highlights, including the U.S. Department of Justice backing communities suing fossil fuel companies, "growing calls for DOJ action from Congress," and new research revealing that "industry scientists predicted the climate crisis with eerie accuracy as early as the 1980s."

"Polling shows that a majority of voters across the political spectrum continue to support holding polluters accountable and making them pay their fair share of climate damages," the group noted. "As we enter 2024, climate accountability is reaching an unprecedented level of momentum."