“Lawfare is an ugly tool by which to seek the environmental policy changes the California Parties desire, enlisting the judiciary to do the work that the other two branches of government cannot or will not do to persuade their constituents that anthropogenic climate change (a) has been conclusively proved and (b) must be remedied by crippling the energy industry.”
That’s what the Texas Second Court of Appeals opined when it reluctantly overturned a lower court ruling in favor of ExxonMobil’s effort to apply our state’s long-arm statute to its adversaries.
Last Friday, the Texas Supreme Court denied Exxon’s petition for review.
A group called Energy Policy Advocates had filed an amicus brief in support of Exxon, arguing that “the actions at issue in this case … are actually part of a coordinated, nationwide campaign targeting Texas businesses.”
The group came to this conclusion after reading the briefs submitted by the municipalities and their attorney, Matthew Pawa, and reviewing relevant public records.
“These public records from numerous institutions across the country demonstrate without ambiguity the common origins and principals, the definitive links and private coordination in underwriting and recruiting governments to file suit against Texas companies, ‘nationwide,’” the group argued in its brief. “Records show the intermediaries then recruit law faculty, attorneys general and municipal plaintiffs, to claim billions of dollars of losses at these parties’ hands, in a multi-front campaign seeking to extract hundreds of billions of dollars for distribution to political constituencies, as well as influence national policy.
“The instant matter represents an attempt by a Texas business to protect itself from this nationwide litigation campaign which is targeting Texas’ interests.”
Unfortunately, the group failed to convince our state Supreme Court that Texas courts “have the power to protect Texas businesses when their rights are threatened by improper use of the courts in other states to extract revenue from Texas.”
Lawfare is a clear abuse of our court system, an abuse that no court at any level should tolerate.