A month after the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court’s determination that federal-question jurisdiction provided a basis for the removal of Oakland and San Francisco’s climate change nuisance lawsuits against oil and gas companies, Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California submitted a letter to the Ninth Circuit “to correct a mistake” in the Ninth Circuit’s opinion. Judge Alsup said a footnote in which the Ninth Circuit “declined to address the extent to which the complaints’ dependence on the navigable waters of the United States afforded removal jurisdiction” incorrectly indicated that his decision relied on admiralty jurisdiction as a basis for removal, a grounds not identified by the companies in their removal notices. Judge Alsup said this footnote “confused federal-question jurisdiction arising out of the navigable waters of the United States with admiralty jurisdiction.” Judge Alsup’s letter asserted that navigable waters “serve as a bedrock of federal common law and federal-question jurisdiction” and requested that the Ninth Circuit withdraw the footnote and address “the merits of the ground on which removal jurisdiction was actually sustained.”

Public nuisance actions brought by City of Oakland and City of San Francisco against fossil fuel companies.

City of Oakland v. BP p.l.c.

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

District Court Asked Ninth Circuit to Delete Footnote in Opinion Reversing Determination on Removal Jurisdiction

Filed

United States of America

California

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.