MAP Statement On City of New York City’s Climate Lawsuit Dismissal
Washington, D.C. – Phil Goldberg, Special Counsel for the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project, issued the following statement in response to the New York City climate lawsuit’s dismissal today.
“Today’s dismissal of New York City’s climate lawsuit is a clear indication that courts in New York and around the country are continuing to see through these allegations and that neither the law, nor commonsense, subjects energy producers and sellers to liability for climate change.
There have now been three attempts in New York alone to sue energy companies over climate change, and all three have failed for good reason. Today’s ruling found the City’s allegations to be ‘distortions’ of the facts, and courts previously called similar claims ‘hyperbolic’ and that this litigation ‘ignores economic reality.’ Last year in Delaware and Baltimore, nearly identical claims were dismissed because their state’s liability laws also were not so limitless and unprincipled as to allow them.
At this point, it should be clear that lawsuits are a misguided approach to addressing the very real challenges of climate change and distract from real solutions that will allow the world to source and use energy in ways that are affordable and sustainable.”