WASHIGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the State of Minnesota in its protracted legal battle with Big Oil, which the state says lied knowingly about the industry’s role in climate change. The Court ruled against the American Petroleum Institute, which had wanted the case moved out of state courts. The Institute felt federal courts would be gentler on the industry. The suit began in 2020 when Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, formally accused the American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil and Koch Industries of a decades-long campaign to deceive the public about climate change. The state wanted the companies to pay for the effects of the climate crisis on Minnesotans. The case was brought under Minnesota’s consumer protection law. The charge specifically was that the fossil-fuel industry was fully aware of the dangers of burning coal, oil and gas — and ignored the warnings and covered them up. The new Supreme Court ruling puts the state an important step closer to putting the fossil fuel industry on trial.
Court ruling
The U.S. Supreme ruling was unsigned and carried no discussion, commentary or rationale. Court observers believed that Trump-appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with Big Oil. It was Kavanaugh who recommended to the Court to consider the industry’s case. It requires four of the nine justices to agree to hear a case.