Legal Newsline

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Latest News

Losing streak emerges as NYC, hired guns lose climate change case against Big Oil

By John O'Brien | Jul 21, 2018

Federal judges continue to reject the efforts of private lawyers who hold a financial stake in lawsuits brought by government officials against the oil industry over the alleged effects of climate change.

From policy to payday: Focus in environmental causes like Boulder's shifts, former Interior Secretary says

By John O'Brien | Jul 17, 2018

Protecting the environment has long been an objective in lawsuits filed by activists in Colorado courts, but a recent, ambitious effort from the City of Boulder includes another goal - profit.

After amendment, Boulder's climate change lawsuit headed to federal court

By John O'Brien | Jul 9, 2018

The City of Boulder’s decision to add new claims to its climate change lawsuit has afforded defendants Exxon and Suncor the chance to transfer the case to federal court.

Others 0 for 2, but Rhode Island joining climate change litigation anyway

By John O'Brien | Jul 5, 2018

A judge on the other side of the country has ruled that it isn’t an issue for the courts, but that is not stopping Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, and the private lawyers he has hired, from suing the oil industry over alleged effects of climate change.

Rhode Island sues over climate change, using similar claims the state Supreme Court has already rejected

By Daniel Fisher | Jul 3, 2018

R.I. AG Peter Kilmartin better hope Rhode Island courts import California’s concept of public nuisance law, since the last time a Rhode Island AG tried this tactic, over lead paint, the state Supreme Court rejected the claim entirely.

A closely watched climate case is dismissed; Will the others survive?

By Dan Fisher | Jun 27, 2018

The private lawyers who engineered the latest round of municipal lawsuits over climate change hoped they’d found a path through the thicket of precedents blocking their way by suing oil companies for selling hydrocarbons instead of burning them and by citing state instead of federal law.

Judge boots global warming cases of San Francisco, Oakland against oil industry

By John O'Brien | Jun 27, 2018

A California federal judge has rejected the efforts of municipal officials who teamed with private lawyers to seek to hold the energy industry liable for the alleged future effects of climate change.