In telling the U.S. Supreme Court that a lawsuit brought by numerous Colorado municipalities seeking damages due to climate change belongs in state court, the federal government was accused on Wednesday by major oil firms of “flip-flopping.”
The justices had asked the Biden administration for its position on a petition brought by ExxonMobil Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. contesting a February 2022 federal appeals court decision that sent the case to state court, a setting generally viewed as more favourable to the municipal plaintiffs.
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The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled that none of the reasons claimed by the firms to shift the venue supported federal court jurisdiction, and the government’s brief mainly supported this conclusion.
However, the oil firms asserted on Wednesday that the government’s view had reversed from that adopted by the Trump administration just two years prior and that the new reasoning was instead motivated by a “desire to signal virtue” to political allies rather than a genuine dispute over legal theory.
“Rarely has this court seen a more cynical change in position,” the oil companies said.
Story was adapted from Reuters
