The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Justice Department to weigh in on whether climate change lawsuits brought by California and two dozen other cities and states should be blocked.
The question is whether greenhouse gas emissions are an issue controlled solely by federal law or whether states can play a role.
The oil and gas industries had urged the high court to address the issue now and rule that federal law preempts or preempts state lawsuits seeking damages for the impact of a warmer climate.
Monday's brief order asks Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar to file a brief “expressing the views of the United States” in the two pending appeals, Sunoco v. Honolulu and Shell vs. Honolulu.
The announcement indicates that it will be at least several months before the court decides whether to take over the dispute between oil and gas producers and the blue states suing them.
In the meantime, however, state and city attorneys from Massachusetts to Hawaii can pursue 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 risks of a warming planet.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said the state was suing the five largest oil and gas companies (Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP) and the American Petroleum Institute for what they described as a “decades-long campaign of deception.” that created the climate. -related damages in California. The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court.
Monday's order noted that Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. was not involved in the court's consideration of these appeals, presumably because he owns stock in one or more of the 15 companies that filed the appeals.
Unlike the other justices, Alito has continued to maintain a large portfolio of individual stocks that may require him to stop deciding a case involving one of those companies. However, if the court were to take up the climate change case next year, it could sell the affected shares and then participate in the decision.
Separately, Alito has been under pressure to stop speaking out 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 election.
Alito said he would not step aside. He acknowledged that his wife had raised flags outside two of his homes in a manner widely perceived to support the January 6 insurrectionists. But he said he had nothing to do with her decision and that didn't stop him from deciding impartially in the pending case.
