From The Daily Caller
1:23 PM 02/15/2019 | Energy
Chris White | Energy Reporter
Several attorneys general and legal experts accused New York Thursday of overstepping the law after the state leveled lawsuits against energy companies for supposedly contributing to man-made global warming.
Attorneys general from Indiana, Alabama, Texas and several others filed amicus briefs in support of fossil fuels companies as New York City appeals the dismissal of its climate change lawsuit. New York University Law Professor Richard Epstein and the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) added their support for the companies as well.
“New York City’s effort to use New York’s state common law of public nuisance to regulate global climate change presents issues of extraordinary importance to the Amici States, for it attempts to extend New York law across not only the United States, but the entire world,” the states noted.
U.S. District Judge John Keenan dismissed the lawsuit in July 2018, arguing that litigating such an action “for injuries from foreign greenhouse gas emissions in federal court would severely infringe upon the foreign-policy decisions that are squarely within the purview of the political branches of the U.S government.”
It’s the third such lawsuit brought against oil companies ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips. A U.S. District Court judge in Northern California struck down identical lawsuits in 2018 brought by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland. The WLF brief made similar comments in its brief.
Environmental activist protests against fossil fuel in front of the venue of the COP24 UN Climate Change Conference 2018 in Katowice, Poland December 10, 2018. Agencja Gazeta/Grzegorz Celejewski via REUTERS
“Whether it admits it or not, however, the city seeks both to direct national public policy and to instigate a tort-law revolution,” the group noted in their court document. WLF’s briefs also come as supporters for the energy companies criticize the trial attorneys behind the litigation. (RELATED: Judge Tosses Out New York City’s Climate Change Lawsuit)
Hagens Berman, for instance, stood to earn billions of dollars in contingency fees depending on the total winnings, from a favorable judgment against oil companies. San Francisco, New York City and Oakland claimed billions of dollars worth of damage from global warming induced by fossil fuels.
Epstein meanwhile has long been skeptical of such lawsuits. Thursday’s brief was no exception.
“The city’s claims, if allowed, would expand the law of public nuisance far beyond its common law foundations, and, in doing so, would lead to a morass of litigation that would produce arbitrary, inconsistent and ill-considered outcomes in multiple jurisdictions in the United States and even overseas,” he stated.
Manufacturers also blasted off against New York City’s appeal.
The National Association of Manufacturers argued that New York City must avoid using climate talk to bludgeon the energy industry. “Defendants are engaged in the production and sale of lawful products essential to modern life. The City must not be allowed to turn the promotion and sale of energy into a liability-inducing event.”
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I’m sure that New York welcome like suits by the relatives of those murdered by illegal aliens who were in the city based on sanctuary cities. Had the city turned those over to ICE, their loved ones would still be alive and #NewYorkKnew
These law suits are not about stopping CO2 emissions. This is an attempt to use the CC scam to extort money by a group of individuals who will then distribute this money to other similar minded individuals (including those who choose not to work) for which they claim entitlement. This concept is otherwise know as socialism.
Of course the major emitter of global CO2 is China, a country that emits around twice that of the USA, and is not surprisingly praised by the same green alarmists and their associated media propaganda outlets, because they are a socialist/communist country.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/10/china-on-track-to-lead-in-renewables-as-us-retreats-report-says
Aside from the praise, you’ll notice that these Green propaganda news outlets never mention China’s vastly dominating CO2 emissions and you’ll also never see the Green protest army camped outside a Chinese embassy in any country, demanding they stop their evil ways. Perhaps this is the most single importnat clue to understanding their real intentions.
Yes many protested and boycotted South Africa for their sins.
Not a problem for China and India.
Zero protests anywhere in the World.
It’s the third such lawsuit brought against oil companies ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips. A U.S. District Court judge in Northern California struck down identical lawsuits in 2018 brought by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland. The WLF brief made similar comments in its brief.
This is just like election recounts, or USSR vs USA in Olympic Basket Ball. It will be tried over and over and over and over again until they win and it will stick.
Now that there are people saying they aren’t having children because of climate change hysterics and others are clinically depressed and perhaps some people have committed suicide, When will the first law suits start coming through the system and hold to account the wild claims made by “scientists”” and media that are driving this madness?
Steve Berman can’t get those billions now.
It’s all over for him because Trump fixed the Supreme Court.
Berman will be too old by the time the Dems take the Court back.
No doubt another Berman will surface to make his fortune from corrupt State Govs.
They pay millions in advance regardless (contingency fees are the bonus).
Our money hard at work . . .
Unfortunately, the Dems will re-take the Supreme Court sooner than expected.
It’s clear now Trump is on the Cartel payroll, so his future in the WH is not looking good.
Earth to Warren, Earth to Warren, can you please describe the color of the sky in your world?
This is a clear statement of the stupidity of such lawsuits:
… like turning the treatment and distribution of water into a liability-inducing event.
OR
… like turning the production and distribution of red meat into a liability-inducing event.
How can bringing lawsuits on people who provide products and services to enable civilization as we know it even be allowed ? How has the legal system degraded to the point that such lawsuits even remotely stand a chance of being viewed as serious ?
Earth to Mark.
You’re intelligent, clinical and skeptical except in relation to your preferred political masters where you allow a large element of emotion to color your thinking (a character flaw bedeviling most Americans).
I challenge you to clinically analyse the Trump show of late.
If you do, you’ll arrive at the above conclusion (and like me, wish you hadn’t).
Before you embark on the analysis, study the methods of the paymasters.
They own most Dems and some Repubs.
It’s nothing like you might imagine.
It’s all done so nicely and with great patience, sophistication and generosity.
Nothing remotely like their street methods.
Lawsuits like this should bring with them penalties of significance against those making them.
Maybe a couple billion dollars taken from New York City would stop any future attempts by other cities.