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The aftermath of severe flooding on Taylorsville Road in Upper Makefield, Pennsylvania, July 20, 2023. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
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Dueling arguments over a climate lawsuit brought by Bucks County against several oil companies stretched on for hours Monday at the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas in Doylestown. The arguments focused on a motion by the defense to dismiss the case based on standing, or whether the county has the right to bring the case.
Bucks County filed the lawsuit last year, alleging BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Phillips 66, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute knew that burning fossil fuel would cause devastating climate impacts but led a decades-long campaign to cover up the risks its products pose to the environment.
The county seeks damages caused by climate change, including infrastructure costs related to flooding.
Defense attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that state and local municipalities do not have the standing to bring such claims.
Ted Boutrous, counsel for Chevron Corporation, said in a statement that impacts of global climate emissions would fall under federal law.
Bucks County Court Judge Stephen Corr will now decide on Chevron’s motion to dismiss the case.
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A number of judges across the U.S. have dismissed similar lawsuits. Last month, a Mercer County judge dismissed a climate case brought on by the State of New Jersey, arguing only federal law can govern “interstate and international emissions claims.”
Corey Riday-White, managing attorney for the Center for Climate Integrity, said municipalities have a right to file cases against large companies when their residents have been harmed. He pointed to recent settlements from pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid epidemic.
Riday-White said the outcome of the Bucks County lawsuit depends on how the judge interprets the case. He said oil companies frequently miscategorize climate liability cases as attempts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions or solve climate change.
“The cases are no more about solving climate change than the tobacco litigation was about solving cancer,” Riday-White said. “The cases are about corporate accountability, they’re about us as a society saying when a company deceives us about the harm their product is going to cause they should have to pay the cost to clean up that harm.”
A number of similar lawsuits in other states have prevailed. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a climate liability case brought by the city of Honolulu could proceed.
Bucks County argues it has suffered increasingly severe weather events due to the fossil fuel industry’s actions, such as flooding worsened by the rising tidal waters of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers.
The lawsuit was filed less than a year after seven people were killed during flash floods in Bucks County.
The lawsuit seeks monetary damages to pay for storm damage, such as recouping the cost of bolstering or replacing bridges and funding stormwater management products.
