MD Supreme Court blocks climate lawsuits against Big Oil

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The Maryland Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked three local governments’ climate lawsuits against more than two dozen international oil and gas companies, writing that their claims “cannot be seriously contemplated.”

The state’s high court ruled that lawsuits by Baltimore City, Annapolis and Anne Arundel County were preempted by federal law, apparently putting an end to years of litigation in state and federal courts.

In a consolidated case argued last October, the court upheld decisions by the Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County circuit courts, which granted the Big Oil companies’ motions to dismiss.

“We determine that the local governments, through their various state law claims, are seeking to regulate air emissions beyond their jurisdictional boundaries,” Justice Brynja Booth wrote.

“No amount of creative pleading can masquerade the fact that the local governments are attempting to utilize state law to regulate global conduct that is purportedly causing global harm,” she wrote.

Baltimore in 2018 sued BP, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Hess and many other companies, alleging they concealed knowledge of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions for decades. They argued the oil companies had a responsibility to warn the public about sea-level rises and severe weather, and that the effects of climate change are felt locally, even if the perpetrators are multinational corporations.

Baltimore was the 13th local government to file such a lawsuit, according to the Sierra Club. Annapolis and Anne Arundel County followed in 2021.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a similar case brought by Boulder, Colorado.

Maryland Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew Fader wrote a concurring opinion, as did Justice Steven Gould. Justices Shirley Watts and Peter Killough wrote separately to concur in part and dissent in part.

Booth wrote that even if the governments’ claims were not preempted by federal law, they failed to state claims under Maryland law public and private nuisance, strict liability and negligent failure to warn, and trespass.

“Quite simply,” Booth wrote, “the notion that a local government such as Baltimore, Annapolis, or Anne Arundel County may pursue state law nuisance claims against the Defendants — seeking injunctive relief to abate injuries arising from global greenhouse effects arising from worldwide conduct — is so far afield from any area of traditional state or local responsibility that it cannot be seriously contemplated.”