Washington D.C. – Phil Goldberg, Special Counsel for the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project, issued the follow statement in response to a Cert Petition urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review the merits of the Honolulu climate suit.

“The U.S. Supreme Court should grant the companies’ Petition for Certiorari and review the merits of Honolulu’s claims. Regulating the worldwide production and use of energy – as the plaintiffs’ case attempts to do – is simply beyond the limits of any individual state’s law. The Supreme Court found in AEP v. Connecticut that claims relating to global fuel emissions raise issues ‘of special federal interest’ and that ‘borrowing the law of a particular state would be inappropriate.’ And the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a climate case brought by New York City, has already reaffirmed this point, leading it to dismiss the state law claims in that case. Trying to apply Hawaii state law to climate change here is directly at odds with these rulings, and the Supreme Court should take this case to make sure that states properly follow its jurisprudence.”