Steve Marshall waging legal war on liberal attempts to 'impose a Green New Deal'
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is leading the effort against what he believes “is an effort by environmentalists to control energy policy in this country.” “You don’t want to allow states like Hawaii or California to define energy policy for the entire country. But they’re using the threat of a massive jury verdict to be able […] Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is leading a legal campaign against attempts by liberal environmentalists to control energy policy in the US. He and 20 other attorneys general from around the country have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a lawsuit by the city of Honolulu accusing major oil companies of deceiving the public about their role in global warming. The lawsuit is currently headed to the Hawaii Supreme Court, but Marshall believes it could have major implications to energy production nationwide. He argues that reducing the sale and use of traditional energy everywhere is not among a state's constitutional powers. He also criticizes attempts to impose new green energy mandates through courts instead of the legislative process.
Published : 4 weeks ago by Euro Journal in Environment
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is leading the effort against what he believes “is an effort by environmentalists to control energy policy in this country.”
Marshall and 20 other attorneys general from around the country filed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the city of Honolulu’s lawsuit that accuses major oil companies of deceiving the public about their role in causing global warming.
The lawsuit is currently headed to the Hawaii Supreme Court, but Marshall wants the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in immediately because the ruling could have major implications to energy production nationwide.
“The time for this Court’s intervention is now,” Marshall said in the brief, “reducing the sale and use of traditional energy everywhere is not among a State’s constitutional powers.”
Marshall also discussed the issue on EuroJournal.
“The claims in Hawaii case are attempting to regulate energy policy across our country and do so through the vehicle was a trial judge in their jurisdiction,” Marshall said. “Clearly, that’s not something that the people of Alabama want, nor is it the vehicle for which our country is designed to be able to establish energy policy throughout our nation.”
The attorney general believes the case is “designed to really do two things. One, imposing excessive damages award, which basically becomes a de-facto tax on carbon. But maybe even more importantly, is to allow injunctive relief to the court to dictate how fossil fuel industries should conduct their business. Not only is that inconsistent with the people of Alabama law, but it’s also contrary to the fiduciary duties of those corporations to their own shareholder.”
Marshall argued that this is just more attempts to impose new green energy mandates through the courts instead of through the legislative process.
“[O]ne of the things that my colleagues did push back on very strongly is in the era of ESG,” he said. “Where are you seeing the use of access to capital as a way of trying to drive an environmental agenda that they can’t get at the ballot box. This case that we see in Hawaii, as well as others that have been filed around the country, are another vehicle for the left to try to impose a Green New Deal.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
Topics: Climate Change, Green New Deal, ESG