BP p.l.c. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore

On April 24, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court denied fossil fuel industry defendants’ petitions for writ of certiorari seeking review of decisions affirming remand orders that sent climate change cases brought by state and local governments back to state courts. The fossil fuel companies had asked the Court to consider whether there was federal jurisdiction over state-law claims seeking redress for injuries allegedly caused by the effects of interstate or transboundary greenhouse gas emissions on the global climate because federal common law necessarily governs such claims. Justice Alito did not participate in the consideration of or decision on the petitions.

On October 14, 2022, fossil fuel companies filed a petition for writ of certiorari seeking review of the Fourth Circuit’s decision affirming the remand order in the climate change case brought by the Mayor & City Council of Baltimore. The petition presents the same two questions as the pending petition for writ of certiorari seeking review of the Tenth Circuit’s affirmance of the remand order in Colorado local governments’ climate case: (1) Whether federal common law necessarily and exclusively governs claims seeking redress for injuries allegedly caused by the effect of interstate greenhouse-gas emissions on the global climate; and (2) Whether a federal district court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. 1331 over claims necessarily and exclusively governed by federal common law but labeled as arising under state law. Baltimore requested a 30-day extension for the filing of its response to the petition.