Today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected requests from the fossil fuel industry to review a ruling by the Hawai~i Supreme Court<\/p>\n
that permits Honolulu\u2019s historic lawsuit against Big Oil companies for climate deception to go to trial. The decision maintains<\/p>\n
Honolulu\u2019s and other American communities\u2019 plans to hold Big Oil companies accountable for deceiving the public about their<\/p>\n
involvement in the climate crisis.<\/p>\n
Big Oil companies are facing an increasing number of state and local climate deception lawsuits, and this is the fourth time<\/p>\n
since 2023 that the justices have rejected an appeal from them. The justices were urged by the U.S. Justice Department to reject<\/p>\n
Big Oil\u2019s request to have the Honolulu case taken up.<\/p>\n
The Center for Climate Integrity\u2019s president, Richard Wiles, issued the following statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cBig oil companies continue to fight a losing battle to keep their climate lies from going to trial. The fossil fuel industry\u2019s worst<\/p>\n
nightmare, facing the overwhelming evidence of their decades of deliberate climate deception, is now closer than ever to<\/p>\n
happening thanks to this most recent denial. Communities around the world are suffering greatly as a result of Big Oil\u2019s<\/p>\n
decades-long climate deception. Honolulu residents and communities nationwide deserve a court hearing to hold these<\/p>\n
corporations responsible.
\nContext of Sunoco v. City and County of Honolulu, et al. City and County of Honolulu v. Sunoco, et al. is a lawsuit filed in<\/p>\n
Honolulu that aims to hold large oil and gas companies, such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP, accountable for the costs<\/p>\n
of local climate damages brought on by their decades-long campaign of lying about the risks of their fossil fuel products. The<\/p>\n
Hawai~i Supreme Court\u2019s decision that the federal Clean Air Act does not preempt state law claims to hold fossil fuel<\/p>\n
companies accountable for their deceptive conduct was reviewed by the justices at the request of oil companies. To persuade<\/p>\n
the court to hear the case, the fossil fuel industry and its supporters have launched a massive media campaign. Alito, the judge,<\/p>\n
stepped aside from the case. Because Honolulu\u2019s claims \u201ctarget only the [fossil fuel] products\u2019 deceptive marketing,\u201d the Justice<\/p>\n
Department concurred with the Hawai~i Supreme Court in a brief urging the Supreme Court to reject Big Oil\u2019s petition, holding<\/p>\n
that \u201cthe Clean Air Act does not categorically preempt respondents\u2019 claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Overview of American Climate Accountability Cases Against Big OilIn an effort to hold large oil and gas companies<\/p>\n
responsible for misleading the public about the role of their products in climate change, eleven attorneys general\u2014from<\/p>\n
California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of<\/p>\n
Columbia, and Puerto Rico\u2014as well as dozens of city, county, and tribal governments in California, Colorado, Hawai\u2018i, Illinois,<\/p>\n
Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Puerto Rico have filed lawsuits.<\/p>\n
When taken as a whole, these cases represent over one in four Americans. The Michigan attorney general declared last year that<\/p>\n
he would be suing fossil fuel companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected requests from the fossil fuel industry to review a ruling by the Hawai~i Supreme Court that permits Honolulu\u2019s historic lawsuit against… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n