Op-Ed: Supreme Court should protect Pennsylvania energy from dog-and-pony show

The U.S. Supreme Court has not one, but two opportunities this term to rein in a partisan litigation campaign dead-set on taking down the oil and natural gas industry. The Justices should intervene in order to protect consumers and manufacturers in Pennsylvania and across the country from the costly effects of an undemocratic lawfare campaign.

For nearly a decade, dozens of attorneys general and municipal elected officials across the country – even in Pennsylvania – have been lobbied by activists to sue U.S. energy companies for the effects of climate change. One of these cases, brought by the City and County of Honolulu, has been appealed to the Supreme Court.

This week, instead of accepting or rejecting the companies’ appeal outright, the Court requested President Biden’s solicitor general to weigh in on the case. This is a clear signal that the court is strongly considering reviewing this misguided litigation.

While the Supreme Court awaits word from the White House, other lawmakers have taken a decisive step to try to ensure that elected officials in states like California can’t use their own state courts to drive their preferred national climate policy.

Last month, 19 Republican state attorneys general filed a case with the U.S. Supreme Court (Alabama v. California) arguing that five Democrat-led states are violating core principles of federalism by using state climate lawsuits to penalize the lawful production and use of fossil fuels outside their borders.

One of the litigants, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, hit the nail on the head when he said that if these anti-energy efforts have their “desired effects,” natural gas and oil companies will be “hit with massive damages or have to change their policies directly.” This, of course, affects consumer prices and energy security nationwide.

Pennsylvanians shouldn’t have to pay California’s soaring energy prices just because politicians in California would prefer to sue American fossil fuel companies while importing oil from OPEC.

These two cases underscore the urgent need to intervene before countless dollars and public resources are sunk into a politicized legal battle. Otherwise, instead of real solutions to shared goals of producing responsible, cleaner energy, we’ll risk having a patchwork of contradictory legal judgements that create a liability minefield, hinder energy access, and waste taxpayer resources.

In the meantime, the scourge of climate litigation continues to spread across the country. First only found in deep-blue, coastal states, the litigation campaign has now foolishly spread to the energy industry’s heartland in Pennsylvania. The lawsuit filed by Bucks County proves that out-of-state activists can still find a friendly local official naïve to the ramifications of billionaire-funded climate lawsuits.

But these lawsuits, at their core, are irrational and hypocritical.

Natural gas and oil companies provide an essential product that powers homes and businesses, allows us to drive our kids to school, and keeps us warm in winter. I’d challenge the municipalities suing energy producers to run their city services without gasoline or electricity, or the environmental activists championing these suits to hold a protest without the petrochemicals that made their cell phones, backpacks, or megaphones.

Something that the climate activists conveniently ignore is that the energy industry, especially here in Pennsylvania, also has a proven track record of doing business responsibly and making tangible environmental gains. Natural gas has reduced Pennsylvania’s power sector CO2 emissions by 46% since 2005.

In contrast, lawsuits do nothing to lower greenhouse gas emissions. What they do instead is provide a vehicle for ideological funders and plaintiffs’ attorneys to pursue their own agendas. Ironically, the litigation campaign was started and continues to be funded by the Rockefellers , the same mega-billionaires who made their fortune off hydrocarbons.

It’s time to shed the façade that these climate lawsuits are organic, grassroots efforts with altruistic goals. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are the result of a coordinated, billionaire-funded campaign that aims to bankrupt American energy, wipe out American industry, and diminish our superpower standing in the world.

The Supreme Court should waste no time intervening to protect the American economy from activists’ political dog-and-pony show.