The federal district court for the District of Columbia granted the District of Columbia’s motion to remand to D.C. Superior Court a lawsuit alleging that energy companies violated D.C.’s consumer protection law by knowingly misrepresenting the effects of fossil fuel products. The court first found that the companies failed to show that federal common law should apply to D.C.’s claims. The court reasoned that even assuming that D.C.’s claims implicated “uniquely federal” interests (e.g., interstate pollution, navigable waters of the United States, and foreign affairs), the companies did not show a “significant conflict” between those interests and D.C.’s claims. The court further found that even if federal common law applied, the well-pleaded complaint rule would bar federal jurisdiction, rejecting the suggestion that the doctrine of complete preemption provided an exception to the well-pleaded complaint rule in this case. The court noted that the Supreme Court has only recognized complete preemption in the context of federal statutes, not federal common law. The court next found that the defendants did not establish that the Grable exception to the well-pleaded complaint rule applied because the defendants failed to identify a disputed federal issue that was necessary to resolve D.C.'s consumer protection claims. The court also found that federal enclave jurisdiction did not apply and that removal was improper under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act’s (OCSLA’s) broad jurisdictional grant because the alleged false advertising and misleading information campaigns were not “operation[s]” under OCSLA and because activities on the outer Continental Shelf were not shown to be the but-for cause of D.C.’s injuries. In addition, the court found that federal-officer removal did not apply because even if the defendants acted under the federal government’s direction in their development of fossil fuel products, there was not a nexus between D.C.’s claims and the asserted federal authority. The court also rejected arguments that there was diversity jurisdiction or jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act.

Lawsuit filed by the District of Columbia against oil and gas companies for allegedly violating the Consumer Protection Procedures Act by misleading consumers about “the central role their products play in causing climate change.”

District of Columbia v. Exxon Mobil Corp.

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Federal Court Found No Federal Jurisdiction for D.C.’s Consumer Protection Lawsuit Against Fossil Fuel Companies

Filed

United States of America

District of Columbia

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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

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

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.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

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.

This sector creates and distributes information and entertainment through television, radio, print, and digital platforms.

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.

Federal Court Found No Federal Jurisdiction for D.C.’s Consumer Protection Lawsuit Against Fossil Fuel Companies

Policy instrument

Risk

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Finance