Last week, the State of Maine became the latest state or local government to sue the major fossil fuel companies for damages related to climate change. There are around three dozen lawsuits bringing common law and state tort law claims against the largest and most prominent fossil fuel companies; this wave of litigation was initiated by a handful of California cities and counties in 2017, and has continued ever since, even though several of these lawsuits have been dismissed on various legal grounds. However, a number of these lawsuits are proceeding into the discovery phase of litigation, which may have encouraged Maine to join and embrace this legal strategy. 

Notably, the lawsuit brought by Maine--though sounding in the same common law theories as most of these cases (e.g., claims of nuisance)--has also brought claims under the Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act, which focuses on alleged “misrepresentations made . . . regarding the safety of fossil fuels,” and seeks damages under particular provisions of Maine law. Additionally, it is worth noting that the various consequences of climate change identified by the Maine lawsuit, including “sea level rise, ocean warming, ocean acidification, and warmer winters” and an “increas[ed] . . . risk of serious vector-borne diseases in Maine [such as] . . . Lyme disease and mosquito-borne illnesses” are not precisely parallel to the consequences of climate change identified in other geographic regions (e.g., wildfires in California and the Mountain West). Depending upon how the case develops, this different focus could be significant.

Ultimately, though, the significance of this lawsuit lies the fact that the broader trend of climate change litigation against the major fossil fuel companies has continued, with new states willing to enter the fray and file additional lawsuits, despite some noteworthy legal defeats. That suggests this wave of climate-related tort litigation is far from over.