The Maryland cities of Baltimore and Annapolis, along with Anne Arundel County, are appealing a trio of losses in their lawsuits seeking to hold the oil and gas industry financially liable for climate change.
The parties filed a consolidated brief with the Maryland Supreme Court on Tuesday, arguing that the circuit courts that dismissed the lawsuits misunderstood the claims in the cases and that the verdicts should be reversed.
They wrote that the two courts that rejected the lawsuits adopted the industry’s “mischaracterization” of the cases as efforts to limit greenhouse gases nationally and globally. Rather, the governments argued, the lawsuits argue that the companies violated state consumer protection laws by knowingly misleading purchasers about the dangers of burning fossil fuels.
“Remedying deceptive and misleading commercial conduct as alleged here is within the core of state police powers,” the appeal says, quoting a 2018 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that found it “is well settled that the states have a legitimate interest in combating the adverse effects of climate change on their residents.”
