Today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected requests from the fossil fuel industry to review a ruling by the Hawai~i Supreme Court that permits Honolulu’s historic lawsuit against Big Oil companies for climate deception to go to trial. The decision maintains Honolulu’s and other American communities’ plans to hold Big Oil companies accountable for deceiving the public about their involvement in the climate crisis.
Big Oil companies are facing an increasing number of state and local climate deception lawsuits, and this is the fourth time since 2023 that the justices have rejected an appeal from them. The justices were urged by the U.S. Justice Department to reject Big Oil’s request to have the Honolulu case taken up.
The Center for Climate Integrity’s president, Richard Wiles, issued the following statement:
“Big oil companies continue to fight a losing battle to keep their climate lies from going to trial. The fossil fuel industry’s worst nightmare, facing the overwhelming evidence of their decades of deliberate climate deception, is now closer than ever to happening thanks to this most recent denial. Communities around the world are suffering greatly as a result of Big Oil’s decades-long climate deception. Honolulu residents and communities nationwide deserve a court hearing to hold these corporations responsible.
Context of Sunoco v. City and County of Honolulu, et al.
City and County of Honolulu v. Sunoco, et al. is a lawsuit filed in Honolulu that aims to hold large oil and gas companies, such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP, accountable for the costs of local climate damages brought on by their decades-long campaign of lying about the risks of their fossil fuel products.
The Hawai~i Supreme Court’s decision that the federal Clean Air Act does not preempt state law claims to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their deceptive conduct was reviewed by the justices at the request of oil companies. To persuade the court to hear the case, the fossil fuel industry and its supporters have launched a massive media campaign. Alito, the judge, stepped aside from the case.
Because Honolulu’s claims “target only the [fossil fuel] products’ deceptive marketing,” the Justice Department concurred with the Hawai~i Supreme Court in a brief urging the Supreme Court to reject Big Oil’s petition, holding that “the Clean Air Act does not categorically preempt respondents’ claims.”
An Overview of American Climate Accountability Cases Against Big Oil
In an effort to hold large oil and gas companies responsible for misleading the public about the role of their products in climate change, eleven attorneys general—from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico—as well as dozens of city, county, and tribal governments in California, Colorado, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Puerto Rico have filed lawsuits. When taken as a whole, these cases represent over one in four Americans. The Michigan attorney general declared last year that he would be suing fossil fuel companies.
