Nearly four years ago, Joe Biden kicked off his presidency by killing the Keystone XL pipeline and suspending new oil and gas leasing and drilling permits on federal land. Now, as he heads for the exit, the administration is going out the same way: siding with efforts by cities and states to use local nuisance laws to punish international energy companies for selling oil and gas. Honolulu filed a lawsuit against Sunoco, Exxon, ConocoPhillips and other energy companies in 2020, accusing them of creating a “public nuisance” by producing fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases.
The lawsuit also alleges that the companies misled the public about the facts about energy and carbon emissions. The energy companies argued that claims addressing climate change are regulated by federal laws such as the Clean Air Act, not conflicting state laws, and that allowing cities and states this license will lead to litigation chaos. Last spring, they filed a petition with the Supreme Court, urging it to step in and clarify whether federal laws apply to these claims.
It’s an analysis embraced by John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the George W. Bush Department of Justice. “If Honolulu gets away with such a lawsuit, states could be encouraged to concoct similarly unlimited theories of tort liability that interfere with the nation’s ability to pursue coherent policies on energy and climate change,” Yoo recently wrote in National Review.
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