Ken Paxton
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today issued the following statement on today’s hearing in the Southern District of New York and the request to dismiss New York City’s frivolous tort lawsuit against several energy companies:
“Extreme climate change activists, working in tandem with New York City’s liberal Mayor Bill de Blasio, think they have finally found a way to force their radical climate change agenda on the entire nation while driving up energy costs for ordinary, hardworking Americans. The City of New York, along with liberal mayors and trial lawyers across the country, want to extract billions of dollars from a handful of oil and natural gas companies based on the entirely unproven claim that those companies are responsible for climate change and global warming. Liberal politicians are trying to enact disastrous policies through the courts because they have been unable to do so through the ballot box.
“It is absurd to place the blame for climate change on only a few energy companies in America when the root causes of climate change are complex and not fully understood. And the attempt to manipulate the courts in this manner – via filing local ‘nuisance’ ordinances as an end-run around the legislative process– has been tried before and rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“In fact, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the Court’s unanimous opinion that district courts have no jurisdiction to claim damages from global climate change. The Court ruled that this issue instead belongs in the hands of Congress and the EPA. The Southern District of New York should rule the same way and save millions in unnecessary litigation fees paid by taxpayers.
“We all depend on affordable, reliable energy and a handful of profitable energy companies should not be forced to defend themselves in costly, unfounded lawsuits.”