Supreme Court asks Justice Department to weigh in on climate change lawsuits in California, other states

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Justice Department to weigh whether climate change lawsuits filed by California and two dozen other cities and states should be blocked.

At issue is whether greenhouse gas emissions are a matter controlled only by federal law, or whether states can play a role.

The oil and gas industries had asked the high court to take up the case now and rule that federal law preempts or invalidates state claims seeking damages for the impact of a warmer climate.

Monday’s brief order asks Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar to file a brief “expressing the views of the United States” in the two pending appeals, Sunoco v. Honolulu and Shell v. Honolulu.

The announcement signals that it will be at least several months before the court decides whether to hear the dispute between the oil and gas producers and the blue-chip states suing them.

In the meantime, however, state and municipal attorneys from Massachusetts to Hawaii can press ahead with their claims. They are seeking jury trials to show that energy companies knew for decades about the dangers of burning fossil fuels and instead tried to downplay the dangers of a warming planet.

Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said the state is suing the five largest oil and gas companies — Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP — and the American Petroleum Institute over what they described as a “decades-long campaign of fraud” that created the climate. -related damages in California. The lawsuit was filed in Superior Court in San Francisco.

Monday’s order noted that Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. did not participate in the court’s review of these complaints, apparently because he owns shares in one or more of the 15 companies that filed the complaints.

Unlike other justices, Alito has continued to hold a large portfolio of individual holdings that could require him to recuse himself from ruling on a case involving one of those companies. However, if the court took up the issue of climate change in the next year, he could sell the affected shares and then participate in the decision.

Separately, Alito has been under pressure to recuse himself from ruling in the pending case involving former President Trump and Trump’s claim that he should be immune from criminal charges alleging he conspired to overturn his loss in the 2020 elections.

Alito said he would not withdraw. He admitted that his wife had flown flags outside their two homes in a manner widely perceived as supportive of the January 6 insurgents. But he said he had nothing to do with her decision and that did not prevent him from impartially ruling on the pending case.