Baltimore’s climate change lawsuit returns to city court after long jurisdictional fight

A multimillion-dollar lawsuit that accuses oil companies of misleading the public about fossil fuels’ effects on the climate is finally back in Baltimore City Circuit Court after a jurisdictional battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

An hourlong status conference Friday marked the city court’s first major action in the case, which the city of Baltimore originally filed in 2018, since it was stayed in 2021.

“I am excited to work on this case. I just hope that we get through it before I retire,” joked Baltimore City Circuit Judge Videtta A. Brown, who is specially assigned to the lawsuit.

The status conference was at times chaotic because of the sheer number of lawyers on the call. Brown discussed pending motions to dismiss the case that were put on hold while the case traveled through the federal courts.

The defendants asked to re-brief their motions because of recent updates in the law. Brown said she will allow the companies to re-brief the motions and will decide later on whether they can file new motions. The judge also set a timeline for handling the filings.

The companies being sued by Baltimore include BP America Inc., Chevron Corp., CITGO Petroleum Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Hess Corp., Marathon Petroleum Corp., Phillips 66 and Shell Oil Co.

The city’s lawsuit accuses Big Oil companies of misleading the public about the harmful contributions that their energy-generating activities made toward climate change. The suit seeks millions of dollars of damages for alleged violations of the Maryland Consumer Protection Act, as well as products liability, public nuisance and trespass.

The oil companies deny the city’s claims and argued that they had a common law right to have their case heard in federal court because the harm alleged in Baltimore’s lawsuit arose from operations outside of Maryland.

The companies, which are facing similar lawsuits in many other states, have repeatedly tried to have the cases moved into federal courts. Baltimore, and other state and local governments, have asked to keep their climate change lawsuits in state courts, where both sides agree the government stands a better chance of winning large damages than in federal court.

The case bounced between the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court before the high court in April declined to hear the oil companies’ request, sending the case back to state court.

The court’s ruling also affected cases from California, Colorado, Hawaii and Rhode Island. More than a dozen similar suits are pending in state courts around the country claiming that oil and gas produced by the companies led to greenhouse gas emissions, which contributed to global climate change and caused harm locally.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.