Exxon Mobil Corporation and two related entities (ExxonMobil) asked the federal district court for the District of Massachusetts to dismiss a citizen suit brought pursuant to the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in connection with ExxonMobil’s operation of a marine distribution terminal in Massachusetts. ExxonMobil argued that the plaintiff, Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), lacked standing because the climate change impacts alleged by CLF were speculative and too far in the future to satisfy standing requirements. For the same reason, ExxonMobil said that CLF’s allegations failed to allege the “imminent and substantial endangerment” necessary to state a RCRA claim. ExxonMobil also argued that CLF’s climate change-related Clean Water Act claims were jurisdictionally and facially defective because EPA had clearly taken the position that remote and speculative climate change impacts did not need to be considered with respect to NPDES permits, Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans, and Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) plans. In addition, ExxonMobil contended that CLF did not state valid non-climate change Clean Water Act claims. ExxonMobil also said that the court did not have subject matter jurisdiction to consider the claim that the SPCC plans for the terminal should consider climate change because the Clean Water Act’s citizen suit provision did not encompass such a claim.

Citizen suit alleging violations of RCRA and Clean Water Act for failure to take action to prepare marine terminal for climate change.

Conservation Law Foundation v. ExxonMobil Corp.

<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>

ExxonMobil Sought Dismissal of Climate Change Citizen Suit Alleging RCRA and Clean Water Act Violations at Massachusetts Marine Terminal

Filed

United States of America

Massachusetts

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

Codes and standards are regulatory instruments that specify minimum standards to protect health and safety. This ranges from performance standards, which prescribe outcomes while allowing flexibility to achieve compliance, to the more prescriptive approach of technology-specific standards.

Conditions that enhance the feasibility of adaptation options. Enabling conditions include finance, technological innovation, strengthening policy instruments, institutional capacity, multi-level governance and changes in human behaviour and lifestyles.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

Actions to adapt human health, healthcare systems and well-being to climate change.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Risks to the ecosystem health of the marine environment, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, and ocean deoxygenation, harming biodiversity, species health, ecosystem services, and coastal community livelihoods.

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.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock formed from carbonised plant matter, rich in carbon and hydrocarbons, and occurring in several main types including hard coal and brown coal.

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

This sector involves managing waste treatment, sanitation, pollution control and environmental cleanup.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

Climate change can have a range of impacts on technological system. Extreme weather events can cause infrastructure failures like power outages or damage to roads and bridges, as well as the impacts from waste following natural disasters. Human activities also cause technological impacts, such as the risks posed by oil spillage and leaks.

Any substance with chemical properties that can cause physical harm to people or damage the environment, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, phosphine, chlorine, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, pesticides, dioxins, microplastics, benzene, asbestos, aflatoxins, fluoride, methanol, and toxins from marine sources.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

ExxonMobil Sought Dismissal of Climate Change Citizen Suit Alleging RCRA and Clean Water Act Violations at Massachusetts Marine Terminal

Policy instrument

Risk

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience