Far-right fossil fuel company allies pressure US supreme court to shield firms in unprecedented campaign | Oil and gas companies
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Far-right allies of fossil fuels have launched a stunning and unprecedented campaign pressuring the Supreme Court to protect fossil fuel companies from litigation that could cost them billions of dollars.
Some of the groups behind the campaign are linked to Leonard Leo, architect of the right-wing takeover of the supreme court who helped select Trump’s Supreme Court nominees. Leo also appears to have ties to Chevron, one of the plaintiffs in the case.
“He really created the Supreme Court,” said Lisa Graves, executive director of the progressive watchdog group True North Research and an expert on the Leonard Leo network.
Honolulu is one of the 40 cities and countries is suing an oil major over alleged decades-long efforts to cast doubt on the dangers of burning fossil fuels. If successful, the lawsuit could force the defendants to pay for damages caused by the climate.
In October, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the case could go to trial. But the oil companies filed a petition the US Supreme Court in February to review the state court decision; they argued that the cases should be dismissed because emissions are a federal issue that should not be litigated in state courts.
Judges of the Supreme Court met on Thursday to consider whether or not to accept the fossil fuel companies’ request, and the justices could grant or reject the petition in the coming days.
If granted, the request could catalyze the dismissal of a wave of climate liability lawsuits against big oil companies — a major victory for defendants seeking to limit their liability for the climate crisis. But that’s a question the Supreme Court would not normally rule on, advocates and legal experts say.
“The court probably won’t consider this claim important unless somebody told them it was very important,” said Curt Davis, director at the Center for Climate Integrity, which supports the litigation against big oil.
Some conservatives are telling them just that.
“I’ve never, ever seen this kind of overt political campaign to influence the court like this,” said Patrick Parenteau, a professor and senior fellow in climate policy at Vermont Law School.
In recent weeks, conservatives have published opinions in Bloomberg, the hill, Wall Street Journal and on National review asks the court to grant the request.
“Honolulu is trying to use one state’s law to dominate others,” wrote Cary Severino, president of conservative dark money group JCNformerly known as the Judicial Crisis Network, in the right-wing National Review.
JCN is a trade name for concord fund, one of many nonprofits run by Leo, the powerful far-right judicial activist who also co-chairs the right-wing legal advocacy group the Federalist Society. Judge Clarence Thomas once joked that Leo was the third most powerful man in the world.
Asked about the influence campaign, Severino told the Guardian: “Liberal dark money groups … are going crazy because the Supreme Court is being asked to step in and fix the damage these dark money groups are doing with their massive campaign to undermine the law and the constitution with a radical climate agenda.”
Another Lion-related non-profit organization, the Consumer Alliancealso works social media ads making similar arguments, Rolling Stone reported this month. Leo has said he will try to use the nonprofit to “institute many legal and social changes.”
In April, 20 Republican state attorneys general also filed “friend of the court” briefs asking the Supreme Court to grant the petition. Each of them is a member of Republican Association of Attorneys Generalin which Leo’s Concord Fund is a major contributor.
The Hill opinion was authored by Donald Kochan, a professor at George Mason University Law School who pres 2016 received 30 million dollars donation courtesy of Leo, E&E News noted.
George Mason University has also taken tens of millions of dollars from right-wing organizations cultivated by fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch. A strategist at one of Koch’s groups said in 2022 that her organization “partners with organizations that can take the right cases to the Supreme Court,” the Guardian and Documented reported. The Koch network is also a long-standing staple financier to the Federalist Society, which Leo co-chairs.
Thousands of petitions are filed in the Supreme Court each year, each with little chance of being heard, E&E News noted.
Federal rules too they say that the supreme court has jurisdiction only over final judgments, Parenteau said.
“There is no final verdict in the Honolulu case, period, period,” Parenteau said. “For the court to grant this petition, it must ignore or find some way around these clear procedural rules.”
Oil Industry Relations
Some environmentalists wonder if another Lion-affiliated group, CRC Advisors, was involved in the political campaign.
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The email comment the Guardian received from Severino, the JCN president quoted above, was not sent by JCN itself, but by a senior account executive at CRC Advisors.
Leo is the founder and chairman of the public relations firm that it is reported works with high-profile right-wing clients including Americans for Prosperity and the Competitive Enterprise Institute — both part of the Koch network that has long worked for cast doubt on the climate.
In 2020, E&E News revealed another prominent CRC Advisors client: Chevron, which is one of the defendants in the Honolulu case and many other cases of climate liability. The firm mistakenly sent an email to reporters ending with the subject line: “If you prefer not to receive future communications from Chevron, let us know by clicking here.”
Ann archived The webpage, discovered by True North Research, also shows that CRC listed “the second largest integrated energy company in the US” as a client in 2019, saying that for the client the agency “developed winning communications, media relations, crisis communications and social media strategies”.
The second-largest U.S. energy company that year was Chevron, noted Graves of True North Research.
CRC Advisors did not directly respond to questions from the Guardian about its involvement in the campaign or its current relationship with Chevron.
Curt Davis said there was no direct evidence that Chevron was involved in the media push, but that the campaign raised suspicions.
“This case in Honolulu directly affects Chevron, as well as many other climate cases in which Chevron is a defendant, so while we don’t yet know what corporate interests are behind the Alliance for Consumers pressure campaign, we continue to follow our noses.” , he said.
Chevron did not respond to a request for comment.
Potential “backfire”
The political campaign, Graves said, is a clear sign that the American justice system has been “captured by Leonard Leo and his billionaire benefactors.”
“These lawsuits are important steps to address the serious harm caused by [fossil fuel] industry,” she said. “But … they have used their resources to push an agenda that does not allow for climate accountability.”
But Parenteau said the public strategy could “backfire” because John Roberts, the chief justice, appeared “genuinely” concerned about preserving the integrity and reputation of the high court.
“I think the more you politicize the petition, I think the more concern you’re going to see,” he said.
The justices have three options when it comes to the oil companies’ petition. If they grant the request — the worst possible outcome for the suit’s backers — the court will hear arguments in the fall. If the judges instead sought an opinion from the attorney general, it would significantly delay the case.
They could also reject the petition outright, which would be a victory for climate advocates, Parenteau said.
“It should be watched closely,” he said.
Another climate lawsuit filed by a non-profit lcompany Our Children’s Trust on behalf of a group of young peopleewill go to court later this month.
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