Supreme Court Allows Minnesota Climate Fraud Lawsuit Against Exxon, Koch, and API to Advance



For Immediate Release
Monday January, 08 2024
Fossil Free Media
Cassidy DiPaola, cassidy@fossilfree.media

WASHINGTON - Today, the Supreme Court denied the petition by ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute (API) to review a decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court allowing the state's consumer protection lawsuit for climate deception to proceed in state court. This marks the third time in the past year that the nation’s highest court has rejected efforts by major oil and gas companies to halt this groundbreaking litigation.

Filed in 2020 by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the lawsuit alleges these companies violated state consumer protection laws by engaging in a coordinated campaign of deception around the role their products play in causing climate change. The complaint points to multiple examples of these companies downplaying global warming despite knowing from their own scientists that burning fossil fuels poses severe threats.

In siding with Minnesota, the Supreme Court has now removed the last potential procedural hurdle to the case advancing to discovery and trial. Cassidy DiPaola, Communications Director for Fossil Free Media and the Make Polluters Pay campaign praised the decision:

“Today’s decision is an important step forward for accountability and justice. The Supreme Court has now laid out an unmistakable path forward for not only Minnesota’s consumer protection case against ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and API, but the dozens of cases against the fossil fuel industry popping up across the county.”

With its litigation now cleared to proceed in state court as intended, Minnesota appears well positioned to test longstanding legal principles of consumer protection and fraud against the alleged deception around climate science perpetrated by major oil and gas interests.