A Maryland judge recently threw out a climate case, handing a huge win to major oil companies and an enormous loss to residents of Baltimore City.
What's happening?
Inside Climate News reported that this case, filed in 2018, is just one of over a dozen similar lawsuits against powerful oil giants such as Exxon, Chevron, and BP.
Across the nation, climate change has caused major problems for citizens. Instances of extreme weather events worsened by the planet's rising temperatures have caused destruction, pollution, and financial burden in many communities.
These people are seeking compensation from big oil companies, arguing the corporations knew the work they were doing was harmful and dangerous but that they did it anyway.
The judge in this case, the Baltimore City Circuit Court's Videtta A. Brown, explained that her decision to side with the oil companies came because damages from gas pollution fall under the Clean Air Act.
"Global pollution-based complaints were never intended by Congress to be handled by individual states," Brown wrote in her opinion.
The city disagreed with this ruling. It argued the oil companies should be held responsible for damages since they falsely marketed their products and deliberately hid the known harms associated with burning dirty energy sources.
The city claimed it was not pursuing the lawsuit with the aim to regulate gas pollution and that it should fall into state jurisdiction; it intends to seek a higher court's opinion.
"This decision is the oil companies' dream," said Robert Percival, a professor and director of the Environmental Law Program at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. "This is what they would love to happen to all those cases."
Why are these lawsuits important?
Planet-warming dirty energy sources have caused disastrous situations in communities across the United States. Earth is heating up, making huge weather events more extreme and putting people in danger.
The air pollution alone has caused health issues for citizens, including reproductive issues.
This slew of lawsuits taking place across the nation aims to hold big oil companies accountable for knowingly harming the environment and, therefore, consumers.
What's being done about the lawsuits and the environment?
Alyssa Johl, the vice president and general counsel for the Center for Climate Integrity, said that other similar court cases are turning out differently. Many judges have allowed climate deception lawsuits to continue to trial.
While these court cases unfold, many researchers are seeking ways to help the environment.
Experts have devised a way to trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it easily. One startup has even found a way to turn carbon dioxide air pollution into butter.
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