WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A federal court has put a brief stay on the District of Columbia's climate change lawsuit against Exxon and other oil companies while it decides if a longer one is needed.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit imposed a stay on the case as the defendants appeal a ruling that sends it out of federal court and into D.C. Superior Court. Defendants in similar cases nationwide can mount stronger defenses in federal courts but have mostly failed to convince judges that the cases belong there.
The issue is destined for the U.S. Supreme Court, which has defendants asking for stays on remand orders. D.C. says there is no reason to stop proceedings and wants the case sent to D.C. Superior Court as soon as possible.
Briefing is to be complete by Jan. 20, the federal appeals court said, on whether a longer stay is needed.
The Supreme Court on Oct. 3 invited the U.S. Solicitor General to submit a brief on whether to grant certiorari in Boulder County's lawsuit against the oil industry, which the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded back to Colorado state court.
ExxonMobil and other defendants argue such cases belong in federal court because they hinge on questions of federal regulation and transnational law.
Plaintiff lawyers retooled their strategy in climate litigation after suffering major losses in federal court in New York and California. They shifted to theories based upon fraud and state consumer protection laws, arguing the oil companies misled consumers into using fossil fuels by downplaying their role in global warming.
The oil companies argue the federal government explicitly encourages oil and gas development as national policy and the governments suing them are some of the biggest users of fossil fuels, with large fleets of automobiles, trucks and buses.
Those arguments have failed to halt the tide of climate lawsuits, however. D.C. argued ExxonMobil has no right to complain its shouldn’t have to defend itself in multiple courts, saying it is already doing so elsewhere. “Moreover, the harm caused by Defendants’ deceptive conduct—and the deceptive conduct itself—is ongoing,” D.C. said.
Federal courts have remanded cases in Hawaii, Rhode Island, Maryland and Colorado back to state courts and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals explicitly rejected ExxonMobil’s argument a New Jersey case should be stayed pending Supreme Court review, D.C. said.