Curious case: sue for green

Source: Far-right fossil fuel company allies pressure US supreme court to shield firms in unprecedented campaign | Oil and gas companies | The Guardian

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Honolulu is one of 40 cities and states suing big oil for an alleged decades-long effort to sow doubt about the dangers of burning fossils. If successful, the case could force the defendants to pay for climate damages.

In October, the Hawaii supreme court ruled that the suit can go to trial. But oil companies petitioned the US supreme court in February to review the state court’s decision; they argued the cases should be thrown out because emissions are a federal issue that shouldn’t be tried in state courts.

Supreme court justices met on Thursday to consider whether or not to take up the fossil fuel companies’ request, and the justices could grant or reject the petition in the coming days.
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I have mixed thoughts on this but lean against using the Courts to resolve. Purdue Pharma was evil to push OxyContin that led to a lot of deaths. In like fashion, fossil fuel companies advocating for burning their products and against climate science, well they are behaving badly (i.e., Exxon 'survey' in Facebook.) Just I think we are at a technology inflection point.

We, our species, is moving from expensive, one-time fuel burning towards more affordable solar fusion powered. The use of light, wind, and rain along with nuclear fission is making more and more economic sense. A similar inflection point occurred when we went from animal powered transportation to internal combustion vehicles. The old saying, "Get a horse" was a criticism of early, unreliable, mechanical vehicles. But there were some strange laws like having someone carry a red flag before the early cars.

So I'm conflicted about wether or not this suit should go forward. I won't cry if it does succeed but a better outcome would be individuals deciding to choose the more affordable, lower operational cost, of renewables.

Bob Wilson