The national push to use state and local laws to target global energy companies may run out of gas this week.
Lawyers for energy companies are heading to a Rhode Island courtroom, accusing the state’s attorney general of lying in a climate change lawsuit.
In 2018, Rhode Island became the first U.S. state to use local laws to sue Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Citgo, and Marathon Oil over climate change. The suit suggested the companies misled residents over the impacts of using fossil fuels.
Since then, other lawsuits have been filed across the country by Democrat-led cities and states.
Rhode Island’s suit, filed by then-Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, includes a long list of grievances against Big Oil. The state blames energy companies for rising sea levels, higher temperatures, drought, and more than $47 million in lost property tax revenue.
“A substantial portion of [their] fossil fuel products are or have been extracted, refined, transported, traded distributed, marketed, promoted, manufactured, sold and/or consumed in Rhode Island,” the state claims.
The energy companies’ response: Who’s drilling oil in Rhode Island?
The Chevron attorneys point out the state’s claim is false on its face. The Ocean State has no crude oil reserves, oil and gas production, or refineries. Any oil or gas used by residents is sent via ship or pipeline. And, the lawyers say, don’t take our word for it. Ask Rhode Island.
“The state receives shipments of refined petroleum product via six marine import terminals,” states Rhode Island’s Office of Energy Resources.
The federal Energy Information Agency (EIA) confirmed Rhode Island, along with the rest of New England, “does not have any economically recoverable fossil energy reserves.”
Chevron attorneys say those facts show the Attorney General’s Office violated Rule 11 of the state Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure. The rule states anyone who signs a court document believes it is “well grounded in fact” and either follows existing law or presents a “good faith argument.” It’s meant to prevent frivolous lawsuits.
That apparently didn’t happen in the climate suit.
“The State failed to conduct an adequate investigation and failed to establish a well-grounded factual basis before making those allegations in 2018,” wrote Chevron’s legal team.
When the Chevron defendants asked for clarification from the Attorney General’s Office, the state said in January none was needed. The Attorney General’s Office claimed it had a legitimate reason to assert some of the allegations.
Under the Superior Court’s rules, all statements and documents follow Rule 11.
And Little Rhody, as it’s known, isn’t the only island where the local lawfare targeting energy companies is hitting choppy waters in the courts.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S. District Judge Aida M. Delgado-Colón issued a scathing rebuke to the plaintiff’s attorney over a long list of legal missteps. Among them, the judge says the attorney entirely plagiarized an earlier separate complaint filed by the 16 Puerto Rican municipalities (Municipality of Bayamon, et al. v. Exxon Mobil Corp., et al.).
“San Juan’s 241-page complaint is almost a word-for-word carbon copy of the original complaint filed in the Municipalities’ Case,” Judge Delgado-Colón wrote. “This case also presents an astonishing example of plagiarism in the legal profession.”
The judge’s order suggests the plaintiff’s attorney may face fines or other sanctions for “failure to exercise reasonable diligence in this case and for engaging in plagiarism.”
Back in Rhode Island, critics of the anti-energy legal strategy suggest Rhode Island’s failure to follow Rule 11 will doom the suit.
“Courts have consistently held that inadequate due diligence and false assertions in a complaint may merit sanctions,” wrote Mike Stenhouse, CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity in Ocean State Current.
“It is our own Ocean State officials who are guilty of numerous ethical and rules violations – in their dishonest judicial attack on their political opponents,” he wrote.
Both Stenhouse and Chevron’s attorneys say Rhode Island’s lawsuit sits on shaky legal and ethical grounds. The state relied on a “group pleading” in asserting Big Oil damaged the environment, without providing specific examples of which company did what.
And, Chevron’s attorneys argue, Rhode Island’s approach could create a precedent for even less credible legal claims.
“The State could allege that an energy company caused the Covid-19 pandemic [or] engaged in election interference.”
A hearing in Rhode Island is set for Tuesday, April 15.
