{"id":379121,"date":"2025-05-21T09:42:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T07:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=379121"},"modified":"2025-05-21T09:42:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T07:42:03","slug":"not-judiciable-by-any-court-pennsylvania-court-tosses-countys-climate-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=379121","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not Judiciable By Any Court\u2019: Pennsylvania Court Tosses County\u2019s Climate Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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THE DAILY CALLER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Audrey Streb
<\/strong>Contributor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A judge dismissed a Pennsylvania county lawsuit alleging climate change-related harm against major oil and gas companies late on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Stephen Corr dismissed<\/a> the county\u2019s lawsuit against energy companies including Chevron, BP, ExxonMobil and Shell, ruling that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case. The decision is one of several<\/a> recent<\/a> dismissals of climate nuisance lawsuits filed by Democratic-leaning cities<\/a> and states<\/a> seeking major damages from energy companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday we join a growing chorus of state and federal courts across the United States, singing from the same hymnal, in concluding that the claims raised by Bucks County are not judiciable by any court in Pennsylvania,\u201d Corr wrote in the dismissal. (RELATED: Law Firms Stand To Make Killing From Blue Cities\u2019 Climate Lawsuits Against Energy Giants)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Bucks County filed<\/a> the lawsuit in March 2024 and alleged that numerous companies were aware of the climate impacts of fuel products as they engaged in a campaign to mislead the public. The dismissed lawsuit argued that the companies deceived consumers into thinking that their fossil fuel products were safe, which led to their continued use that then further exacerbated the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe agree with the Defendants that Bucks County fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because Pennsylvania cannot apply its own laws to claims dealing with air in its ambient or interstate aspects, and, therefore, we are compelled to dismiss this lawsuit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,\u201d the dismissal states. \u201cWe join many other state and federal courts in finding that claims raised by Bucks County are solely within the province of federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bucks County has seen several flash floods<\/a> in recent years, and the county sought damages in the suit to cover costs for repairs to flood-damaged infrastructure, among other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA simple reading of the complaint proves that Bucks County is truly seeking redress for harm caused by climate change, a global phenomenon caused by the emission of greenhouse gases in every nation in the world,\u201d the dismissal states. Critics of these lawsuits have noted this point for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJudge Corr\u2019s decision was right because the fossil fuel companies were abiding by the law,\u201d Diana Furchtgott-Roth, the Director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment for the Heritage Foundation wrote in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. \u201cEnvironmentalists are trying to use courts to do climate policy because they can\u2019t get their way through a majority of elected officials in the federal or state legislatures. But the way to channel this problem, if there is one, is through laws. If environmentalists can\u2019t get a law passed, they try to get a crackpot judge to agree with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the jurisdictional issue, Corr also expressed \u201cconcern about the manner in which the commissioners went about hiring counsel and filing this lawsuit,\u201d finding that their conduct \u201cviolated the spirit of Pennsylvania\u2019s open government act,\u201d known as the Sunshine Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe court \u2026 got it right when it expressed \u2018concern about the manner in which the Commissioners went about hiring counsel and filing this lawsuit,\u2019 and found that \u2018the conduct of the Commissioners violated the spirit of\u2019 Pennsylvania\u2019s open government act,\u201d counsel for Chevron Corporation Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr. of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP said in a statement to the DCNF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The county\u2019s legal counsel<\/a>, DiCello Levitt, was hired on a contingent basis, meaning that the county government essentially paid no upfront costs for the firm\u2019s services, but the firm would secure a certain percentage of any funds recovered in a settlement. Several other<\/a> Democratic-leaning jurisdictions that have filed similar lawsuits also hired law firms to assist with their climate litigation under similar contractual arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a hearing<\/a> in March, attorneys representing the companies argued that Bucks County lacked legal standing to bring the claims to court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about solving climate change. It\u2019s about Bucks County surviving it,\u201d an attorney for the county Dan Flynn argued, comparing the case to major tobacco company cases in the hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump signed an executive order<\/a> on April 8 instructing his administration to investigate<\/a> state-level attempts to sue or otherwise extract massive payouts from energy companies in the name of climate change. Last month, the Trump administration filed lawsuits<\/a> against Michigan and Hawaii in an attempt to block the states from seeking damages in court against fossil fuel companies for alleged environmental harm, and days later, Puerto Rico dropped one of its similar lawsuits<\/a> against major oil and gas companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bucks County officials, BP, ExxonMobil, Shell and DiCello Levitt did not respond to the DCNF\u2019s request for comment in time for publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter\u2019s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

A judge dismissed a Pennsylvania county lawsuit alleging climate change-related harm against major oil and gas companies late on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":379126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[691834112,691818056,691820398,691824231,691833487],"class_list":["post-379121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bucks-county","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-lawsuit","tag-pennsylvania","tag-us-president-donald-j-trump","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-21.-Mai-2025-09_40_51.png?fit=1024%2C1536&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1ACR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":292359,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292359","url_meta":{"origin":379121,"position":0},"title":"Fisherman\u2019s Association Drops \u201cClimate Deception\u201d Lawsuit","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/23\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"In a recent development that should hardly surprise those who follow the climate litigation theater, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen\u2019s Associations (PCFFA) has withdrawn its climate lawsuit.","rel":"","context":"In \"climate deception\"","block_context":{"text":"climate deception","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-deception"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-539.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-539.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-539.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-539.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-539.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":441504,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=441504","url_meta":{"origin":379121,"position":1},"title":"Climate shakedown lawsuits threaten U.S. energy dominance","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/26\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Propelled by the shale revolution in which human ingenuity (fracking) has made beneficial use of favorable geology, the United States is now the world\u2019s leading producer of crude oil and natural gas. 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