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The U.S. Supreme Court asked the Biden administration Monday to weigh in on an attempt by oil companies to scuttle a lawsuit by the city of Honolulu, Hawaii, that accuses them of deceiving the public for decades about the dangers of climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
The U.S. Solicitor General was invited to file a brief outlining the administration's views on whether a challenge to the city's lawsuit should be taken up by the Court.
A group of major oil companies, including BHP (BHP), BP (BP), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Marathon Petroleum (MPC), Shell (SHEL) and Sunoco (NYSE:SUN), were among the companies asking the Supreme Court to consider the case after Hawaii's Supreme Court ruled in October that the lawsuit could proceed.
In their request for review, the companies argued the U.S. Clean Air Act puts claims of broad environmental impacts under the federal court system and precludes individual states and local governments from filing their own lawsuits.
Attorneys for Honolulu say its claims of the companies' "deceptive" commercial practices "fall squarely within the core interests and historic powers of the states."