Supreme Court This week, Democrats appeared interested in taking up a challenge launched by Hawaii against big oil companies to hold them accountable for climate change, and some Democrats believe the high court has been “captured” by the fossil fuel industry.
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Justice Department to consider a petition to hear a lawsuit filed by the city of Honolulu against major fuel companies. Sunoco, Exxon and ChevronThey claimed the companies’ products cause greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, while consumers are given no warning about the risks.
The city invoked several state laws such as public nuisance and trespassing and said the companies should pay billions to the state to mitigate the effects of climate change such as weather-related events, sea level rise, heat waves, flooding, and global warming in general.
The high court did not give the Justice Department a deadline for the solicitor general’s input, but its request makes it more likely that the court will want to hear the case.
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People hold signs calling on President Joe Biden to support the Green New Deal and stop supporting pipelines and the fossil fuel industry. St. Paul, MN. January 29, 2021. (Tim Evans/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Energy companies were the first to appeal Hawaii Supreme Court, They argue that federal law prevents individual states from effectively shaping energy policies for all states.
But that court disagreed and ruled that the case should proceed to further hearings. One judge said that “the aloha spirit inspires constitutional interpretation.”
“It is significant for the U.S. Supreme Court to grant review. The Hawaii Supreme Court’s decision stands in stark contrast to U.S. Supreme Court precedent and federal circuit court decisions, including the Second Circuit, which dismissed a similar lawsuit from New York City, stating that ‘such a broad matter goes beyond the bounds of state law,'” Chevron Corporation’s attorney, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, told Fox News Digital.
“These baseless state and local lawsuits violate the federal Constitution and interfere with federal energy policy,” he said.
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A pumpjack seen in Tatum, New Mexico on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)
But some Democrats and liberal advocates have already begun criticizing the court.
Last week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, posted on X, saying, “(T)he delays and interference in fossil fuel emissions regulations by this captured Court have already saved polluters hundreds of billions — far more than it cost to capture them. But there is no end to the greed and entitlement of fossil fuel polluters.”
Lisa Graves, executive director of the left-wing watchdog group True North Research, told Rolling Stone that fossil fuel companies’ “efforts to avoid legal accountability…are being aided by the same groups that helped most of the U.S. Supreme Court justices get their seats on the bench.”
The Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, and affiliated lawyers and groups have discussed the case in seminars and journal articles, advocating that the Court take up the case. The Federalist Society has made recommendations to Republican administrations for judges and justices across the country.
But Fox News Digital previously reported that the Hawaii lawsuit is being pushed by liberal dark money groups and legal partners.
“Defendants knew about the dangers of using their fossil fuel products, ‘intentionally concealed and misrepresented the climate impacts of their fossil fuel products,’ and engaged in a ‘sophisticated misinformation campaign to cast doubt on the science, causes, and effects of global warming,’ leading to increased fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions that caused property and infrastructure damage in Honolulu,” Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald wrote in his opinion rejecting the energy companies’ arguments.
Last year, Fox News Digital reported that Recktenwald secretly revealed in May that he had presented for a course in collaboration with a little-known judicial advocacy organization funded by left-wing nonprofits, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI). According to ELI, the Climate Judiciary Project aims to teach judges across the country how to deal with Climate change lawsuit whoever comes before them.
“As climate litigation continues to grow, judges will need to consider complex scientific and legal questions, many of which are rapidly evolving,” CJP writes on its website. “To address these issues, the Environmental Law Institute’s Climate Judiciary Project is collaborating with leading national judicial education institutions to meet judges’ need for basic familiarity with the methods and concepts of climate science.”
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The Supreme Court will appear in Washington on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
Sher Edling, LLP, the firm that helped represent Hawaii in the Supreme Court, works on dozens of climate-nuisance cases representing cities and states across the country. The Daily Caller reported that the firm accepted $2.5 million in 2022 from The New Venture Fund, a fund from the liberal dark-money firm, Arabella Advisors.
In addition to sharing funding sources, Sher Edling, LLP and ELI have also shared personnel. In February, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, revealed that former Biden administration official Ann Carlson had consulted for Sher Edling On climate litigation While serving on the board of ELI.
“We’ve been raising awareness about the dangers of public nuisance lawsuits for over a year now,” O.H. Skinner, executive director of the Alliance for Consumers, told Fox News Digital.
“These cases represent a coordinated, dark money-driven threat to everyday consumers. The cases, the commentators, the law firms, and the state court judges are all funded, supported, and trained by left-wing dark money.”
He added, “And these cases are supported in the halls of Congress by hypocrites like Sheldon Whitehouse, who cry dark money while filing legal suits supporting public nuisance cases backed by liberal dark money. Whitehouse’s real goal, and the goal of most nuisance lawsuits, is to remove from the market products and services that do not align with the progressive agenda.”
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“Left-wing dark money groups like the Climate Judiciary Project are influencing judges across the country with their left-wing climate change propaganda,” Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, told Fox News Digital.
He added, “The prospect that the Supreme Court will hear this case is a nightmare for these groups, because that Court cares more about constitutional principles like federalism than left-wing policy goals.”
The Supreme Court could decide to hear the Sunoco v. Honolulu case as early as this summer.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Senator Whitehouse, the Environmental Law Institute and Sher Edling for comment.
