Bayway Refinery in New Jersey
A New Jersey county filed a copycat climate lawsuit just days before the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could end the trend of suing oil companies over the effects of global warming.
Middlesex County filed its lawsuit September 30 against BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron and other oil companies, citing “severe financial consequences from global warming” it blamed on a campaign of deception “to mislead consumers” into using fossil fuels. The county hired local attorney Gerald Krovatin and the complaint is almost identical to one he filed for the City of Hoboken earlier this year.
Middlesex County proceeded with the litigation even though a New Jersey judge dismissed the state’s climate lawsuit last year, as have judges in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New York, California and Maryland.
Oil industry representatives argue the lawsuits are an attempt to end-run the legislative process by bankrupting the entire oil and gas industry to achieve environmentalists’ climate policy goals. In Monday’s oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices asked whether courts could handle the deluge of cases expected if they rule in favor of Boulder County, Colorado, in its climate lawsuit.
Chief Justice John Roberts said to the lawyer for Boulder County: “If you prevail, the next day, a municipality in every single state will file a lawsuit, they’ll probably copy your pleadings … how do you think that will work out on the ground?”
“Anyone is a potential defendant for a suit like this,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said.
Middlesex County, like Hoboken, cited more than $200 million in costs it attributed to global warming it blames on the use of fossil fuels. “We are taking action to seek compensation for those losses and costs from the corporations whose actions are at the center of this lawsuit,” said Middlesex County Commissioner Director Ronald G. Rios in a news release.
Elissa Frank, president of the New Jersey Civil Justice Institute, criticized Middlesex County for hiring private, for-profit lawyers to sue the oil industry.
“We've seen this playbook before, and it's on a losing streak,” said Frank in a news release on the suit.
“After 150 years in the Garden State, ExxonMobil moved its operations to Texas earlier this year, citing the state's hostile lawsuit environment as a prime reason for leaving,” she said. “Middlesex County is doubling down on the same type of litigation that has already damaged our reputation as a place to invest, create jobs, and do business."
