Not surprisingly, Bucks County’s lawyer admitted proving his point would be hard.
State appeals judges on Wednesday pressed a Pennsylvania county suing oil giants over climate change Wednesday to explain how the companies’ alleged deception worsened local floods.
Bucks County’s lawyer acknowledged that proving that link would be challenging as he urged the Commonwealth Court to revive the lawsuit that a county judge threw out in 2025. Judges also pushed back on the oil companies’ lawyer, and one asked whether the court should wait for the Supreme Court to rule on a similar Colorado case the justices heard Oct. 5.
The justices’ ruling in that case could decide whether similar suits by states and cities across the country can go forward.
A Pennsylvania state judge tossed Bucks County’s lawsuit trying to sue fossil fuel manufacturers last year. Not surprisingly, they’re seeking to revive it.
Climate lawsuits usually start by stretching the traditional idea of public nuisance—normally limited to a private party’s specific, localized harm (even at the neighborhood level)—and applying it to worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions.
This approach distorts long-standing nuisance principles, relies on highly speculative connections between global emissions and local damage, and calculates monetary awards through little more than guesswork. Such cases risk severely damaging the U.S. economy by imposing crippling burdens on the country’s major energy companies.
Here’s hoping the appeals court turns away Bucks County’s lawfare.
PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay
