A couple of weeks ago, a lawsuit brought by the State of Connecticut against a major fossil fuel company, alleging various violations of the consumer protection laws in Connecticut (specifically, the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act) revolving around allegations that the company "misled and deceived Connecticut consumers about the negative effects of its business practices on the climate" survived a motion to dismiss. This case will now proceed to the next phase of litigation, namely discovery, and constitutes yet another example of a climate change case brought by a state or local governmental entity overcoming initial legal hurdles, leading to the potential of a significant future impact on the fossil fuel industry.
While the decision here, which focused on technical legal issues concerning personal jurisdiction, may not be widely applicable, the result is nonetheless noteworthy as yet another skirmish in the long campaign by certain state and local governments against the fossil fuel industry due to concerns over climate change--and stands in stark contrast to the recent dismissal of climate change tort claims by a Maryland state court in a case brought by the City of Baltimore. When assessing these various governmental climate change lawsuits, it is important to consider all of these developments together, in order to maintain perspective concerning the contours of the overall array of litigations.
Several years after Connecticut's attorney general sued [a major oil company] over its communications and actions on global warming, some have wondered if the oil company should be held accountable for climate change, but this week a state judge is allowing the lawsuit to proceed. . . .
Earlier this month, a Maryland judge dismissed similar claims against [this major oil company] and other companies that had been brought by the city of Baltimore, with the city having stated its intent to appeal the decision. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Jersey are among other states to have sued [major fossil fuel companies] on the issue of climate change.
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