Pennsylvania State Court Dismisses Climate Tort Litigation Against Major Fossil Fuel Companies

A local state court in Pennsylvania recently dismissed an array of climate tort claims brought against major fossil fuel companies by a local government--in this case, Bucks County.   Among the three dozen or so climate tort litigations filed in recent years, this ruling is one of several decisions by both state and federal courts that have dismissed climate tort litigation at an early stage of the proceedings.  Nonetheless, it remains true that more climate tort litigations have proceeded than not, as a number of courts--particularly state courts--have enabled those claims to proceed, although there have not yet been any rulings on the merits of the underlying claims.  

Here, the state court held that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction because of the doctrine of preemption--i.e., that federal law governed the claims at issue.  Specifically, the court stated that because “the Clean Air Act and the EPA actions it authorizes preempt[] Pennsylvania State law in this case,” that these laws “displace[] any Pennsylvania common law right to seek abatement of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel production companies.”  This is the same legal doctrine that federal courts in New York and California, and state courts in Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland, have relied upon to likewise dismiss similar climate tort claims.

While this decision will certainly not be the final word on climate tort litigation--a number of cases are continuing to proceed through the courts, and more may yet be filed--it does add increasing weight to a legal analysis that rejects the premise of these lawsuits.