CHRISTOPHER HORNER: ‘Greens’ Win a Victory But Will Likely Lose the War.

The United States Supreme Court this week declined to hear a challenge by oil and gas companies seeking to overturn rulings in two lawsuits, both filed by state and local governments seeking billions of dollars because energy company products supposedly caused, or made worse, devastating “climate change.”

This is being reported as a victory for the environmental lobby, but those reports are misleading for a variety of reasons. Among them is that “climate” wasn’t actually at issue before the Court in this case. This was a jurisdictional question. The oil and gas companies were hoping to remove the matters to federal court given how the purported rationale — global “climate change” —unsubtly suggests this is not well-suited for resolution by, say, a county superior court in Maryland.

Meanwhile, after having stumbled in the federal courts, these litigious, progressively-led government plaintiffs view state courts as their best hope to obtain the demanded riches in disgorged revenues, to pay for politicians’ agendas that legislatures won’t fund through direct taxation.

Always looking for ways around the will of the voters.