Sadly, I do not think any of the lawyers for the fossil fuels companies will ask the plaintiffs “have you yourselves given up your own use of fossil fuels?” Nor will the judges ask the plaintiffs the same
A 4-year-old lawsuit blaming Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil for climate-change harms to Boulder County will go before the Colorado Supreme Court this week as the two oil and gas companies try to convince the justices that the state has no jurisdiction over the issue.
The companies’ attorneys will argue that greenhouse gas emissions released by oil and gas production from within the United States and countries around the world do not fall to individual states to regulate. Instead, they contend, it’s up to the federal government, through the Clean Air Act, to decide how to regulate emissions from oil and gas operators.
Meanwhile, lawyers representing the city of Boulder and Boulder County — the plaintiffs in the lawsuit — will argue that Colorado law allow local governments to pursue claims against Suncor and ExxonMobil because the municipalities are not trying to regulate emissions but, rather, want to receive compensation for the damage caused by the companies’ pollution.
What will the Court decide? Will they take the same route as the New Jersey shakedown suit? In other words, dead, because states cannot seek damages for nationwide and international emissions, as their claims cannot be governed by NJ state laws
Daniela Colaiacovo, a spokeswoman for EarthRights International, which is representing Boulder County, said attorneys were not available to talk about the case prior to Tuesday’s arguments before the state Supreme Court.
But Sean Powers, an EarthRights senior attorney, addressed the matter a statement after a Boulder District Court judge refused in June to dismiss the case.
“Since the beginning, defendants have been arguing against a case we did not plead,” Powers said. “Plaintiffs are not trying to litigate a solution to the climate crisis, they are seeking redress for harms they have suffered and will continue to suffer. The only conduct at issue is defendants’ own: what they knew, when they knew it and what they did with that knowledge.”
In other words, a shakedown.
Teach states: I do not think any of the lawyers for the fossil fuels companies will ask the plaintiffs “have you yourselves given up your own use of fossil fuels?” Nor will the judges ask the plaintiffs the same
They don’t teach “asking goofy questions” in law schools? No wonder America is a failed state.
The real question which should be asked, of the oil companies, is “How much will you have to increase your prices, per gallon, if the plaintiffs’ suit is successful?”
These lawsuits are nothing more than backdoor tax increases. State wins lawsuit, extorts money from energy companies, energy companies pay the money to the state, energy companies add this as just another cost of doing business to the prices they charge, and consumer have to pay the increased prices. Thus, the extra money the consumers have to pay at the pump, or in their utility bills, winds up going to the government!
Most electricity is generated by burning natural gas or coal, so electric prices increase as well, not just consumers individual natural gas bills.
And since all of the energy companies will have to pay, there will be no real competition to provide electricity, natural gas, gasoline, or diesel; everyone gets stuck with the higher prices. If you drive a Tesla or a Chevy Dolt, you still pay more because electricity rates have to increase.
The left seem to think that they can use lawsuits to reduce profits to those evil, ol’ corporations, but the costs of doing business always get passed on. The high muckety mucks know this, and simply hope that a significant number of the
Democratic votersignorant don’t figure it out.If you follow the suits against the tobacco industry, you will find that a number of these attorneys who are state employees get suddenly very rich with a successful suit.
I do very much appreciate the Grateful Dead sticker on the Shakedown Street sign!
Seriously these energy companies should turn off the power to all blue states to prevent any future harm to them. No more electricity, natural gas, Oil, gasoline, diesel fuel and the like. Any future trade with these states must do what is done for the city of New York.
If you bring a load from California to NYC, you must pull into a depot in New Jersey and then allow union members familiar with the city to then take your load into NYC.
The same can happen in these blue states. Union Drivers with Electric Trucks can then take your load into any blue state while you go about picking up a load from these blue states brought to a depot and then transport it across the country using efficient Diesel Semis.
Of course these blue states would have to build a billion wind turbines and solar panels, but thats okay……who cares if they strip mine the planet…..it will save a few molecules of Co2.
Not going to happen. People who work in power plants (and refineries), because they have jobs, are conservative. Conservatives are neither petty nor vindictive but they do like to pay their bills so their motivation is to keep coming to work, producing energy and getting paid. They don’t have Musk “go F&*K Yourself” money.
People who work in power plants are reliable and I personally appreciate that they keep the lights on. Civilization would be a very different place without them. I have been to places where everyone had to have their own generators and do without electricity for long periods of time. Not for me.
Professor, It was snarky criticism of the left’s incessant desire to destroy fossil fuels and what that might look like after they are done suing the fossil fuel companies into the ground.
In addition, when you say not for me, you are not the corporation forced into paying 75 billion into a slush fund. If NY wins its case, then you have another 18 states all willing to get their 75 billion from Exxon, etc. After a while, it might just become impossible to do business in a world litigated by lunatic lefties.
All it takes is ONE WIN, and the floodgates open. That is why the energy companies keep getting sued—over and over and over again—until they get that ONE WIN.
The point of litigation is punitive. This is precisely why the left is now suing Trump incessantly over and over again. All it takes is one win.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=55439
Force the environmentalists to pay defendant’s legal expenses. Triple that.