Judge Dismisses Puerto Rico Municipalities Climate RICO Lawsuit Against the Fossil Fuel Industry

A federal judge has dismissed a climate lawsuit brought by 37 Puerto Rican municipalities against the fossil fuel industry.

Judge Silvia Carreño Coll said the lawsuit's racketeering and antitrust claims were "barred by the applicable statute of limitations" while dismissing all the claims against Chevron, Shell, BP, and other fossil fuel defendants, according to a 125-page omnibus opinion and order filed on Sept. 11.

"The Court has not examined the merits, or lack thereof, of the legal theories advanced by Plaintiffs. But the Court is not insensitive to the plight of the people of Puerto Rico resultant from the 2017 hurricanes. It is perhaps most often in dismissing a claim because of the applicable statute of limitations that judges are reminded that “it is the duty of all courts of justice to take care, for the general good of the community, that hard cases do not make bad law," reads the document.

Filed in 2022, it was the first-ever class-action lawsuit that alleged the fossil fuel industry violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The lawsuit specifically claimed the companies colluded to deceive the public about their product's role in climate change, leading to the devastating 2017 hurricane season, which led to the deaths of thousands of people and caused over $90 billion in damages.

The municipalities were looking to make the companies pay for the damages Puerto Rico suffered because of Hurricanes María and Irma in 2017, according to the amended federal complaint. It alleged the companies had violated fraud, racketeering, nuisance, and antitrust laws, as well as threats to the human and constitutional rights of Puerto Ricans.

"Instead of disclosing the truth about their products and their impact on Puerto Rico, the Oil Defendants mobilized with the Coal Defendants and other fossil fuel-dependent companies in 1989 to form the “Global Climate Coalition” (“GCC”). Through the GCC, Defendants funded a marketing campaign of deception that continues to this day, in violation of federal and Puerto Rico consumer protection rules, anticompetitive practices, racketeering statutes, and common law," reads the amended complaint filed by the municipalities in November 2023.

A magistrate judge previously issued a report and recommendation in the same case saying that the fossil fuel companies should face the RICO and antitrust claims.

Puerto Rico's capital city, San Juan, has filed an incredibly similar climate RICO lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry. As Heavy Weather has previously reported, San Juan's lawyer in that case was sanctioned for repeated late fillings. San Juan's lawyer has also been accused of plagiarising the 37 municipalities' lawsuit by the judge and the defendants in that case. At time of reporting, there is still a "separate procedure" open for those allegations.

San Juan's lawyer had previously filed a motion to consolidate his case with the municipalities' lawsuit, but it is now moot because of the dismissal.

The government of Puerto Rico voluntarily dismissed a similar climate lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry earlier this year. The dismissal came after an oilfield services executives published an op-ed in Forbes asking Gov. Jennifer González Colón to dismiss the lawsuit. The American Energy Institute, a pro-fossil fuel advocacy group, sent a letter to González Colón around the same time asking her to drop the lawsuit and to file amicus briefs in the municipalities and San Juan litigation in favor of dismissal with prejudice. A government spokesperson later said the lawsuit was dropped to align with Trump's policies “to support the burning of fossil fuels [and] the protection of oil companies," according to the Center for Climate Integrity.

Climate lawsuits, including the one presented by Puerto Rico, have been under attack by the Trump administration since the beginning of the year.

All claims against Exxon, Shell, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Motiva were dismissed with prejudice. All claims against Occidental, Rio Tinto, and BHP were dismissed without prejudice. While the RICO claim against API was dismissed with prejudice, the federal antitrust claim and Puerto Rico law claims against it were dismissed without prejudice.

The judgement can be found here.

The municipalities who presented the lawsuit are Bayamón, Caguas, Loíza, Lares, Barranquitas, Comerío, Cayey, Las Marías, Trujillo Alto, Vega Baja, Añasco, Cidra, Aguadilla, Aibonito, Morovis, Moca, Barceloneta, Camuy, Cataño, Salinas, Adjuntas, Arroyo, Culebra, Dorado, Guaynabo, Hormigueros, Juncos, Lajas, Manatí, Naguabo, Naranjito, Utuado, Villalba, Coamo, Orocovis, Vieques, and Yabucoa.

The omnibus opinion and order can be found below: