Credit: (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)File photo: Oil drilling rigs in El Reno, Oklahoma pictured in March, 2022New Jersey’s legal claims that deceptive actions by major oil companies encouraged the unchecked burning of fossil fuels and worsening of climate change have been dismissed.State Superior Court Judge Douglas Hurd in Mercer County ordered the state’s lawsuit dismissed Wednesday. Hurd wrote in his opinion that only federal law can govern the claims made by New Jersey, agreeing with arguments made by the oil companies’ lawyers.
“Only federal law can govern Plaintiffs’ interstate and international emissions claims because ‘the basic scheme of the Constitution so demands,’” Hurd wrote in his opinion. “Therefore, Plaintiffs’ complaint is hereby dismissed with prejudice for failure to state a claim.”
The decision is a blow to the state’s efforts to hold oil companies accountable for damages caused by climate change. The lawsuit, filed in 2022, claimed that oil industry actions to obfuscate connections between burning fossil fuels and global warming, despite industry scientists being aware of such links as far back as the 1950s, violated state law. Many of the world’s largest oil companies — ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips — as well as the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade association, were named as defendants. The attorney general’s office on Wednesday pledged to appeal the dismissal.
Fighting on
“We are disappointed in today’s decision, which allows some of the country’s most powerful companies to escape accountability for hiding the truth and misleading New Jerseyans about the role their products play in causing climate change,” a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said in a statement. “The trial court’s decision is wrong, and inconsistent with decisions in other states, and we are appealing immediately. We will not let companies get away with putting profit above public safety.”
‘The New Jersey Superior Court’s decision joins the growing and nearly unanimous consensus among both federal and states courts across the country.’ — Theodore Boutros, attorney representing Chevron
If New Jersey is able to win the appeal in the state courts — and later prevail at trial — oil companies could face billions of dollars’ worth of damages as a penalty.
Energy & EnvironmentDozens of similar cases have been filed by cities, counties and states around the country. So far none have made it to trial, and the oil companies have fought hard to have each dismissed, with mixed results. Some cases, like one brought by Delaware, have been tossed in decisions similar to Hurd’s. But others, like lawsuits from Massachusetts and Vermont, have been allowed to proceed.
“The court’s analysis of this case is flawed, and the attorney general is right to appeal. This case is about holding Big Oil companies accountable for deceiving the people of New Jersey about the da
