The Biden administration is urging the Supreme Court to reject bids from oil and gas companies and Republican allies who want to quash a flood of lawsuits that seek to hold the fossil fuel industry financially accountable for the effects of climate change.
In briefs docketed with the high court Tuesday, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued against efforts to dismiss legal challenges filed by more than two dozen local governments from Maine to Hawaii. If successful, the cases could cost the industry hundreds of billions of dollars for allegedly deceiving the public about the dangers of burning fossil fuels.
The administration’s responses come as President Joe Biden is on his way out of the White House, to be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to renew his efforts to block the climate cases.
In the first brief, Prelogar argued that a group of Republican attorneys general who are asking the high court for permission to block their Democratic colleagues from suing the oil industry don’t have authority for their claim because “the only interests directly at stake are the interests of private energy companies” — not residents of the states.
