‘Cannot Have It Both Ways’: Judge Delivers Fatal Blow To New York City’s Lawsuit Against Energy Companies

A judge dismissed New York City’s lawsuit seeking to make energy companies pay for climate change on Tuesday.

New York Supreme Court Justice Anar Patel tossed the lawsuit, writing in her ruling that the city could not simultaneously argue that New Yorkers were aware of the relationship between fossil fuels and climate change while being allegedly misled by oil companies about their role in climate change, according to Reuters. New York City’s lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, BP and Shell was one of many similar suits filed in Democrat-controlled jurisdictions seeking massive compensation from energy corporations for their supposed role in driving climate change. 

“The city cannot have it both ways,” Patel wrote in the ruling, according to Reuters. She added that she did not find any evidence that the companies or the American Petroleum Institute engaged in a deliberate “greenwashing” effort to mislead consumers.

A spokesman for New York City’s law department told Reuters that the city is reviewing its options in response to Patel’s decision.

“Our complaint alleged that these defendants spent millions to mislead consumers to think that they, and their products, contribute to a clean energy future,” the spokesman told Reuters. “Our complaint alleged that these defendants spent millions to mislead consumers to think that they, and their products, contribute to a clean energy future.”

Patel’s ruling came down just one day after the Supreme Court declined to intervene in similar climate nuisance litigation brought by the city of Honolulu. Critics of the various climate lawsuits generally assert that they threaten federalism and U.S. energy security by setting up the possibility that different courts effectively legislate from the bench and create a disjointed regulatory landscape for energy production across the country.