Supreme Court Blocks Alaska's Pebble Mine and Exxon's Venue Change Plea
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear two separate appeals concerning environmental and climate change issues. In the first case, the Court refused to take up an appeal by the State of Alaska seeking to move forward with the Pebble Mine project, which had been previously halted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) due to concerns about its potential adverse effects on the Bristol Bay region's ecosystem, home to the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery. Alaska had contended that the EPA's actions violated an agreement related to the establishment of the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, which involved land exchanges with mineral rights. Despite this setback, Alaska has the option to pursue the case through lower courts.
In the second case, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute to transfer a Minnesota state lawsuit to federal court. The lawsuit accuses the companies of misleading the public about climate change and its impacts for decades. The corporations had sought to shift the venue to federal court, where they believed they would encounter a more favorable environment. This decision comes as the Court has previously chosen not to review similar lawsuits brought by local governments against energy firms in state or federal courts, maintaining the jurisdiction of the state-level legal proceedings in these matters.
