A Maryland judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the city of Baltimore against energy giants such as Exxon Mobil, BP, and Chevron. The judge ruled that the case exceeded the boundaries of state law by attempting to address the global effects of gas emissions.
Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Videtta Brown’s decision marked the first instance of a state court judge dismissing one of the numerous lawsuits filed nationwide by state or local governments.
These lawsuits accuse the companies of hiding the dangers of using their fossil fuel products from the public.
The lawsuit accused the companies of orchestrating a sophisticated campaign to mislead the public about the dangers of their fossil-fuel products, which contribute to greenhouse gas pollution and climate change.
Judge Brown wrote, “There is no question that global warming and climate change are wreaking havoc on our environment.”
However, Brown said Congress never intended for lawsuits about global pollution to be handled by individual states and that the city’s 2018 lawsuit raised questions concerning out-of-state emissions that were beyond the reach of Maryland law.
Additionally, she said only federal law can govern claims over such emissions.
She described Baltimore’s claim that it was suing solely under state law for allegedly deceptive fossil fuel marketing as “a way to get in the back door what they cannot get in the front door.”
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In a statement, Theodore Boutrous, a lawyer for Chevron, said the ruling “recognizes that climate policy cannot be advanced by the unconstitutional application of state law to regulate global emissions, ” Reuters reported.
Sara Gross, the chief of the affirmative litigation division in the Baltimore City Department of Law, said in a statement that the city disagreed with the ruling and planned to appeal.
