{"id":336964,"date":"2024-07-19T09:02:24","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T07:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336964"},"modified":"2024-07-19T09:02:26","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T07:02:26","slug":"another-fake-climate-case-bites-the-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336964","title":{"rendered":"Another Fake Climate Case Bites the\u00a0Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Science Matters <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Ron Clutz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The decisive ruling against climate lawfare is reported at Washington Free Beacon Dem-Appointed Judge Tosses Major Climate Case Against Oil and Gas Producers in Blow to Environmental Activists. <\/strong><\/a>Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baltimore judge deals blow to left-wing effort
to punish oil companies for global warming<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Baltimore judge tossed a landmark climate change lawsuit<\/strong> against more than two dozen oil and gas companies in a sizable defeat for environmental activists and Democrats that have touted the case.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Baltimore Circuit Court judge Videtta Brown\u2014who was appointed to the bench by former Gov. Martin O\u2019Malley (D., Md.)\u2014ruled late Wednesday<\/a> that the city cannot regulate global emissions<\/strong> and swatted down the city\u2019s arguments that it merely sought climate-related damages from the defendants, not the abatement of their emissions. She further stated that the court does not accept the city\u2019s contention that it does not seek to \u201cdirectly penalize emitters.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether the complaint is characterized one way or another, the analysis and answer are the same\u2014the Constitution\u2019s federal structure does not allow the application of state law to claims like those presented by Baltimore,\u201d<\/strong> Brown wrote in her opinion (July 11). \u201cGlobal pollution-based complaints were never intended by Congress to be handled by individual states,\u201d she added.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement to the Washington Free Beacon, the Baltimore City Department of Law\u2019s chief of affirmative litigation division Sara Gross said the city respectfully disagreed with the opinion and would seek review from a higher court.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The ruling represents the latest setback for a broader left-wing effort to penalize oil companies for allegedly spreading disinformation about the role their products play in causing climate change. Over the past several years, Democratic-led states, cities, and counties\u2014which are home to more than 25 percent of all American citizens\u2014have filed more than a dozen similar lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, if plaintiffs were to get their way, oil companies could be forced to pay billions of dollars in climate damages, a potentially catastrophic blow to their ability to stay in business.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Baltimore filed its original complaint<\/a> in 2018,<\/strong> making it one of the first<\/strong> ever cases of its kind. After it was announced, former Democratic mayor Catherine Pugh said Baltimore was on the \u201cfront lines of climate change because melting ice caps, more frequent heat waves, extreme storms, and other climate consequences caused by fossil fuel companies are threatening our city<\/strong> and imposing real costs on our taxpayers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese oil and gas companies knew for decades that their products would harm communities like ours, and we\u2019re going to hold them accountable<\/strong>,\u201d then-Baltimore city solicitor Andre Davis added<\/a> at the time. \u201cBaltimore\u2019s residents, workers, and businesses shouldn\u2019t have to pay for the damage knowingly caused by these companies.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, CITGO, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil, and Hess
were among the 26 entities listed as defendants in the filing.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Court\u2019s well-reasoned opinion<\/strong> recognizes that climate policy cannot be advanced by the unconstitutional application of state law to regulate global emissions,\u201d Theodore Boutrous, who serves as counsel for Chevron, said<\/strong> in a written statement to the Free Beacon. \u201cThe meritless state tort cases now being orchestrated by a small group of plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers only detract<\/strong> from legitimate progress toward a lower carbon global energy system.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of the cases filed by Democratic prosecutors against the fossil fuel industry remain pending<\/strong> and are working their way through local courts, even as the oil industry has pushed for them to be litigated in federal courts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a ruling similar to the Baltimore court decision issued Wednesday, a Delaware state court in January<\/strong> delivered a setback to the State of Delaware\u2019s lawsuit against oil producers filed in 2020.<\/strong> That court found that alleged injuries stemming from out-of-state or global greenhouse gas emissions are preempted by the federal Clean Air Act.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Delaware, Baltimore, and most other jurisdictions<\/strong> pursuing the climate cases across the U.S. are being represented<\/a> by the San Francisco-based law firm Sher Edling.<\/strong> The firm was founded to specifically spearhead these novel cases, but has received criticism for its dark money funding.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022 alone, the most recent year with publicly available data, Sher Edling received grants worth a total of $2.5 million from the New Venture Fund,<\/strong> a pass-through fund managed by dark money behemoth Arabella Advisors, according to tax filings analyzed by the Free Beacon. That funding adds to the more than $8 million the firm received in prior years from dark money groups.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Sher Edling\u2019s individual donors remain unknown, past funding for the firm<\/strong> has flowed from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sher Edling didn\u2019t respond<\/strong> to a request for comment.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Baltimore judge deals blow to left-wing effort
\nto punish oil companies for global warming<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":336978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829754,691818056,691829753,691829751],"class_list":{"0":"post-336964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-baltimore-circuit-court-judge-videtta-brown","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-climate-change-lawsuit","11":"tag-fake-climate-case","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0BB1pTfca.jpeg?fit=768%2C512&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1pEU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":203230,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=203230","url_meta":{"origin":336964,"position":0},"title":"Dear HuffPo: City Schools Suffer from Aging Buildings, NOT Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A\u00a0Huffington Post\u00a0article suggests that the need for updated air conditioning systems in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other Northeastern schools is because of climate change. 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John Solomon\u2019s\u00a0Just the News\u00a0has the story: \u2018A coalition of 27 Republican attorneys general is joining a growing chorus of criticism over climate activists providing one-sided material to judges that\u2019s presented as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"climate activists\"","block_context":{"text":"climate activists","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-activists"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-The-Green-Blob1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-The-Green-Blob1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-The-Green-Blob1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-The-Green-Blob1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":221808,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=221808","url_meta":{"origin":336964,"position":2},"title":"untitled","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/10\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"At the end of the day, it is likely not a question of if the Supreme Court will hear these cases, but when.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-71.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-71.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-71.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-71.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-71.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":288270,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=288270","url_meta":{"origin":336964,"position":3},"title":"Biden smeared climate skeptic Nobel laureate at White House Oval Office meeting for practicing \u2018right-wing science\u2019 \u2013 Video","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"20\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Nobel laureate Dr. John Clauser revealed his 2022 meeting with Biden at the Deposit of Faith conference in Baltimore on November 14, 2023.Watch Video here:\u00a02022 Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. John Clauser was invited to a one-on-one meeting with President Biden in the Oval Office at the White House in 2022\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"CO2\"","block_context":{"text":"CO2","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/F-6XyH0W0AAt7bg.jpg?fit=1200%2C941&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/F-6XyH0W0AAt7bg.jpg?fit=1200%2C941&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/F-6XyH0W0AAt7bg.jpg?fit=1200%2C941&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/F-6XyH0W0AAt7bg.jpg?fit=1200%2C941&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/F-6XyH0W0AAt7bg.jpg?fit=1200%2C941&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":430017,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=430017","url_meta":{"origin":336964,"position":4},"title":"Ghostwriters for the Courts: The Climate Litigation Network Behind a Withdrawn Judicial Manual","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/03\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Late last year the federal judiciary quietly released a document that almost nobody outside legal circles normally notices: the fourth edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. 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United States, aka the \u201cKids Climate Case,\u201d by granting the plaintiffs\u2019 motion to amend their complaint, some two years after the motion was filed.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate Case\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate Case","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-case"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/zombie-apocalypse-header-1.jpg?fit=920%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/zombie-apocalypse-header-1.jpg?fit=920%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/zombie-apocalypse-header-1.jpg?fit=920%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/zombie-apocalypse-header-1.jpg?fit=920%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=336964"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336979,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336964\/revisions\/336979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/336978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=336964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=336964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=336964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}