"Judge dismisses climate change lawsuit against oil companies by Annapolis, Anne Arundel County", 25 January 2025

Anne Arundel County and the city of Annapolis cannot sue oil companies for their role in driving the climate change that has had “devastating adverse impacts” on the jurisdictions and their residents, a judge ruled this week.

Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Steven Platt … dismissed the suits by the city and county against … fossil fuel companies, including BP, Shell, Citgo and more, saying federal law preempted the state law claims against the oil companies.

Anne Arundel County Attorney … it plans to appeal Platt’s ruling…

But an attorney for the Chevron Corp. welcomed Platt’s ruling.

“The Court’s decision joins the growing and nearly unanimous consensus, among both federal and states courts across the country, that these types of claims are precluded and preempted by federal law and must be dismissed under clear U.S. Supreme Court precedent,” said the attorney…in a prepared statement...

The Anne Arundel and Annapolis suits claimed that the oil companies had known for decades about the harmful impact of greenhouse gases created by their products, but that they hid that information from consumers or attempted to counter it so that they could keep profiting from the sale of fossil fuels.

Platt’s decision to dismiss is a reversal from last year, when he rejected an attempt by the oil companies to dismiss the lawsuits. His decision to dismiss the cases Thursday followed rulings in other courts around the country, including a nearly identical case in Baltimore, in which judges threw out the suits. In those rulings, in local, state and federal courts, courts said that federal law preempted the state law claims being made in the cases...