|
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a bid by 19 states to end climate litigation brought by five other states against oil and gas companies. The American Petroleum Institute and other industry parties are implicated in the lawsuits, which will be allowed to move forward thanks to the decision.
The cases in question were brought by five states against oil companies, who the states claim owe compensation for the costs of rising tides, intensifying storms, and other disasters worsened by climate change. The Supreme Court is the only court that can hear legal battles among states, but does not have to hear all such cases.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall led the 19 states in their request, which argued that climate liability lawsuits launched by states against oil companies pose “grave consequences” for their own residents and would boost the price of gas. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is leading one of the climate liability lawsuits against oil companies, said the 19 states' SCOTUS petition was “never anything more than an attempt to run interference, help the defendants in our cases avoid accountability, and play politics with the Constitution.”
Taxpayers could be owed billions in oil revenue
The management of federal oil and gas resources is on the Government Accountability Office's recently released “High Risk List" for the eighth time in a row. The list highlights federal programs that are vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement.
The report finds that the Interior Department, which collects oil royalties from companies that drill on federal lands, may not be collecting the government’s fair share due to outdated data collection systems, including the system used to verify oil and gas production volumes.
Additionally, the Office of Natural Resources Revenue stopped estimating an annual royalty gap, which is the difference between the royalties Interior received and what oil and gas producers should be paying. The last time ONRR provided an estimate was in 2011, when the gap was around $100 million.
|
Wildfire is one of the greatest threats to the U.S. right now.” 
