Fossil Fuel Companies Challenge Bucks County Lawsuit

A group of fossil fuel companies are pressing a Bucks County Court of Common Pleas judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Bucks County government.

In a motion to dismiss filed with Judge Robert Mellon earlier this month, the defendants claim that the Bucks County Commissioners failed to publicly deliberate or vote on the decision to file the lawsuit, which violated the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act.

“The county’s public records demonstrate that Bucks County lacked capacity to file this action because the commissioners never deliberated or voted to file suit at an open public meeting,” the oil companies argue in their brief.

Despite typically discussing litigation in executive sessions, Pennsylvania law mandates that any official action by the commissioners, including litigation, must be approved by a majority in a public meeting, according to the filing.

The commissioners voted on January 17 to hire the DiCello Levitt law firm on a contingency basis to explore potential environmental claims. However, the defendants argue this vote did not specifically authorize the lawsuit itself.

The fossil fuel companies are also arguing that the claims in the lawsuit are out of the county’s jurisdiction and could impact the federal Clear Air Act.

The lawsuit was filed in March with backing from the two Democratic commissioners and one Republican.

The lawsuit accuses several major oil companies of deceiving the public about their products’ contributions to climate change. The county alleges that the resulting environmental impacts, such as more severe storms, heatwaves, and flooding. It claims that climate change will pose ongoing risks and financial burdens to taxpayers.

At the time, Bob Harvie, the Democratic vice chairperson of the commissioners, said the lawsuit is important to cover costs in Bucks County that are due to climate change.

Bucks County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo, a Republican, backed the lawsuit at first and spoke at length in support of it at March press conference.

A week later, he stated he “would like to withdraw my support for the lawsuit.”

Motion to dismiss filings are not uncommon in civil lawsuits.

A judge will have to consider the request.

Eric Nagy, the county’s director of policy and communications, declined to comment on the motion of dismiss.

“Addressing climate change requires a coordinated international policy response, not meritless local litigation over lawful and essential energy production. This lawsuit is baseless, just like the identical claims dismissed by the Second Circuit in New York City and state court judges in Delaware and Maryland; a Baltimore city judge recently held that ‘global pollution-based complaints were never intended by Congress to be handled by individual states.’ In addition, there is no record of Bucks County’s lawsuit being publicly approved and consequently the case cannot move forward,” said Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, the law firm representing for Chevron Corporation.

A group backed by the Independent Petroleum Association of America noted that several climate change lawsuits filed by governments have been rejected by courts across the nation.