A federal appeals court has sided with the Trump administration and 19 Republican-led states in a constitutional challenge to several of President Donald Trump’s executive orders designed to boost fossil fuels, concluding that the youth plaintiffs failed to bring a viable case against the federal government. In affirming a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit, […]
In a setback to the Trump administration’s extraordinary legal campaign against state climate action, a federal judge threw out the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to prevent the state of Hawaii from suing oil companies for damages. Trump administration lawyers had claimed that Hawaii, by trying to sue fossil fuel companies, was standing in the way […]
DES MOINES, Iowa—Aaron Lehman has many concerns about the fate of Iowa’s farmers. Climate lawsuits aren’t one. But state legislators don’t see eye-to-eye with Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union. Instead, they’ve pushed through a bill that shields agricultural operations from lawsuits over the climate impacts of their greenhouse gas emissions. The bill now […]
RUTLAND, Vt.—Eighteen years after the first “climate tort” lawsuit was filed, no U.S. plaintiff has collected damages for the harms of global warming. Now, Vermont’s different legal strategy to make fossil fuel companies pay is facing its first real test. On Monday, the state defended its “climate superfund” law before the U.S. District Court of […]
Republican lawmakers in multiple states and Congress are advancing proposals to shield polluters from climate accountability and prevent any type of liability for climate change harms—even as these harms and their associated costs continue to mount. It’s the latest in a counter-offensive that has unfolded on multiple fronts, from the halls of Congress and the […]
From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Paloma Beltran with Greenpeace Netherlands campaigner Eefje de Kroon. Due to climate disruption, scientists forecast huge rises in temperatures across the tropics. According to the IPCC, tropical regions are projected to experience significant warming—nearly 6 degrees Fahrenheit—by 2100.…
From Baltimore to Honolulu, cities have made their views clear: Oil companies whose pollution contributed to climate change should be financially responsible for a fair share of the consequences. Fossil fuel companies, in turn, have argued that cities and states should have no ability to sue them over climate impacts in state courts. Instead, they’ve […]
In the city where the Paris climate agreement was created, French oil major TotalEnergies is facing trial in a landmark civil climate case that aims to compel the company to curb its oil and gas production and emissions in line with the global accord’s 1.5 degrees Celsius long-term temperature limit. The Paris Judicial Court is […]
Michigan is taking on major oil and gas companies in court, joining nearly a dozen other states that have brought climate-related lawsuits against ExxonMobil and its industry peers. But Michigan’s approach is different: accusing Big Oil not of deceiving consumers or misrepresenting climate change risks, but of driving up energy costs by colluding to suppress […]