The Supreme Court of Maryland dismissed three lawsuits from Democratic-led jurisdictions that sought to hold oil and gas companies accountable for climate change, striking a blow to a coordinated legal effort to force energy producers to pay billions of dollars in weather-related damages nationwide.
The 3-2 decision, written by Justice Brynja Booth, determined the lawsuits brought by the City of Baltimore, Anne Arundel County, and the City of Annapolis improperly sought to use state law to "regulate air emissions beyond their jurisdictional boundaries." Baltimore, Anne Arundel, and Annapolis argued that the defendants, more than two dozen oil companies, including BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, violated nuisance laws by selling products that generated carbon emissions and, in turn, led to costly weather events harming their residents.
Climate Change Litigation
The ruling hands a decisive victory to oil and gas companies, which argued that such litigation could dismantle the industry by forcing it to pay tens of billions of dollars in damages. It also marks a victory for the Trump administration, which filed a brief last year asking the court to dismiss the cases. The Trump administration argued that federal law alone applies to cases related to interstate pollution.
The three lawsuits, which were filed between 2018 and 2021, are part of a broader coordinated effort from dozens of Democratic-led cities and states, which have filed identical lawsuits against many of the same oil and gas companies in local courts across the country. More than a quarter of the American population lives in a jurisdiction that is pursuing similar litigation.
Other states, including California, Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota, and New Jersey, and cities including Chicago, Honolulu, San Francisco, and New York have each filed such lawsuits, some of which, like Honolulu's, are farther along and marching toward a potential trial.