The American Petroleum Institute, Exxon Mobil Corp., and other energy giants want the US Supreme Court to weigh in on a climate misinformation suit brought by the state of Minnesota.
The companies filed a certiorari petition on Friday in the case, which is one of many suits seeking to hold companies accountable for alleged misrepresentations of climate change and fossil fuels.
Justices sent a few climate lawsuits back to appeals courts for a second review after examining a petition in Baltimore’s climate suit in 2021. But the Supreme Court has largely denied company bids to take up recent petitions, including certiorari denials in May in cases from Delaware and New Jersey.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) sued the American Petroleum Institute, Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries, and others in 2020, claiming the companies lied to consumers about the role of their products in warming the planet. Like in similar cases, industry attorneys are waging lengthy legal battles over whether the cases fall under state versus federal jurisdiction.
Companies argue in their petition that the Supreme Court must answer this question, given conflicting decisions from circuit courts—namely, a decision in a New York case from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
“One court of appeals has held that federal common law necessarily and exclusively governs claims seeking redress for injuries allegedly caused by the effect of interstate greenhouse-gas emissions on the global climate; three other courts of appeals have rejected that conclusion,” according to the petition. “Those conflicts are developed and entrenched.”
The case is API v. Minnesota, U.S., Cert Petition 8/18/23
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