Attorneys general from 19 Republican-led states have joined together on legal action filed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to block California and other states dominated by Democrats from using lawsuits against energy companies over so-called "climate change" to essentially bypass the constitutional federal process and use the courts to enforce Democrats' preferred energy and climate policies nationwide.
Legal experts have noted the filing is highly unusual and could break new legal ground in establishing legal precedent to govern legal disputes among the U.S. states.
In May, the attorneys general in Alabama, Florida and other GOP states filed a bill of complaint with the U.S. Supreme Court, alleging that the defendant states – California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island – are improperly using the courts to take actions that will reshape the future of the nation’s energy industry.
“Defendant states … hope to do so not by influencing federal legislation or by petitioning federal agencies, but by imposing ruinous liability and coercive remedies on energy companies through state tort actions governed by state law in state court,” the bill of complaint states
A bill of complaint is “a matter of grave public concern” that warrants the Supreme Court’s exercise of original jurisdiction, according to the plaintiff states.
California and the other defendant states are seeking billions of dollars in damages from the oil and gas industry, seeking disgorgement and injunctive relief to compensate taxpayers for the health and environmental impact of decades of oil and gas development. The lawsuits from California and other Democratic states accuse oil and gas companies of allegedly misleading consumers into using their products, and thus, allegedly increasing carbon emissions into the atmosphere, allegedly leading to "climate change."
The Republican states say the Democratic states' lawsuits "imperil access to affordable energy everywhere." The effects of the Democratic lawsuits will not just be felt in Democratic states, but will spread to "every state and indeed every person on the planet," the Republican petition to the Supreme Court says.
“Consequently, defendant states threaten not only our system of federalism and equal sovereignty among states, but our basic way of life," the petition says.
Yale Law School professor Douglas Kysar, whose research areas include the effects of the law on "climate change," said the states’ bill of complaint is unusual in multiple respects.
“Although there is an argument that the Supreme Court has mandatory jurisdiction over disputes between states, it has long been the court’s practice to let such battles play out in the lower federal courts,” Kysar said in an email to the Southern California Record. “Also, none of the states bringing the bill of complaint are defendants in the underlying lawsuits they are complaining about. This is a politically motivated sideswipe, but – given the composition of the current court – it’s one that might yield a significant blow to the cause of climate accountability.”
Attorney Jacob Hupart of the Mintz law firm also called attention to the atypical nature of the filing in an article for the National Law Review.
“This is a highly unusual lawsuit, to say the least,” Mintz wrote. “Original jurisdiction is a rarely invoked basis for a lawsuit, and often features boundary disputes or a controversy over water rights between states. To use it in this context – to disrupt civil enforcement lawsuits against private parties – appears virtually unprecedented.”
The California Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment about the action by the GOP attorneys general.
Florida’s attorney general, Ashley Moody, said California has been reckless with Green New Deal policies that are pushing the state to financial ruin.
“I refuse to allow California, and other states like it, to tell Florida how to govern itself,” Moody said in a prepared statement. “These states are attempting to unconstitutionally legislate across state lines and force their radical policies on other states when people are struggling to buy groceries. Only Congress has the authority to set national energy policy.”
The bill of complaint argues that the defendant states exceeded their authority and flouted the separation of powers.
“The court should enjoin defendant states from seeking to impose liability or obtain equitable relief premised on either emissions by or in plaintiff states or the promotion, use and/or sale of traditional energy products in or to plaintiff states,” the bill of complaint says.