The Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas ruled that the Clean Air Act preempted Bucks County’s climate change tort claims against fossil fuel companies and dismissed the County’s lawsuit with prejudice. As a threshold matter, the court rejected the companies’ argument that the County did not have capacity to sue because the County Commissioners violated Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act by not approving the filing of the lawsuit in an open meeting. The court found that the Commissioner’s use of a “consent agenda” item to authorize the lawsuit complied with the letter of the law, though the court said it believed the Commissioners violated the “spirit” of the Sunshine Act by “burying the resolution to retain current counsel and pursue this lawsuit” within the consent agenda, particularly because the Commissioners’ subsequent characterization of the lawsuit as “historic” and “momentous” was at odds with the use of the consent agenda for “routine or non-controversial” items not expected to require more discussion. Also as a threshold matter, the court found that it had personal jurisdiction over all defendants, even those not registered to do business in Pennsylvania. The court concluded, however, that it did not have subject matter over the case because the County “is truly seeking redress for harm caused by climate change, a global phenomenon caused by the emission of greenhouse gases in every nation in the world,” even though the County argued that its claims sought damages from the defendants’ alleged “deceptive marking campaign.” The court concluded that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut that the Clean Air Act displaced any federal common law right to seek abatement of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants also applied in this case to displace “any Pennsylvania common law right to seek abatement of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel production companies.”

Pennsylvania county's lawsuit seeking to hold fossil fuel industry defendants liable for impacts allegedly arising from the defendants' "disinformation campaign" regarding their products' contribution to climate change.

Bucks County v. BP p.l.c.

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Pennsylvania Court Dismissed Bucks County Climate Case Against Fossil Fuel Companies

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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

A ban is a legal action that prevents the sale or supply of a product or service, or that recalls a product from the market. Examples are bans on SF6, greenwashing, fossil fuel advertisement or single-use plastics.

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Pennsylvania Court Dismissed Bucks County Climate Case Against Fossil Fuel Companies

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector