(Adds background on case, paragraphs 4-10)
By Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on
Friday agreed to hear an appeal by energy companies including BP
PLC, Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and
Royal Dutch Shell PLC contesting a lawsuit by the city
of Baltimore seeking damages for the impact of global climate
change.
The justices will weigh whether the lawsuit must be heard in
state court as the city would prefer or in federal court, which
corporate defendants generally view as a more favorable venue.
The suit targets 21 U.S. and foreign energy companies that
extract, produce, distribute or sell fossil fuels.
The outcome could affect around a dozen similar lawsuits by
U.S. states, cities and counties including Rhode Island and New
York City seeking to hold such companies liable for the impact
of climate change.
Baltimore and the other jurisdictions are seeking damages
under state law for the harms they said they have sustained due
to climate change, which they attribute in part to the
companies' role in producing fossil fuels that produce carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
The plaintiffs have said they have had to spend more on
infrastructure such as flood control measures to combat
sea-level rise caused by a warming climate. Climate change has
been melting land-based ice sheets and glaciers.
The Supreme Court in 2019 declined the companies' emergency
request to put the Baltimore litigation on hold after a federal
judge ruled that the case should be heard in state court. In
March, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals upheld the judge's decision.
In the absence of federal legislation in the bitterly
divided U.S. Congress targeting climate change, the lawsuits are
the latest effort to force action via litigation.
The Supreme Court in a landmark 2007 ruling said that carbon
dioxide is a pollutant that could be regulated by the
Environmental Protection Agency. Under Democratic President
Barack Obama, the agency issued the first-ever regulations aimed
at curbing greenhouse gases. But efforts in Congress to enact
sweeping climate change legislation have failed.
The court took action in the case three days before it
begins its new nine-month term short one justice after the Sept.
18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. President Donald Trump has
nominated federal appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett to
replace Ginsburg.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)
