Attorney General Charity Clark discusses a settlement between Vermont and 42 other states with Johnson & Johnson, a company that made baby powder with talc in it, during a press conference in Montpelier on June 11, 2024. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerA lawsuit filed by the state of Vermont against oil giants Exxon Mobil, Shell, Sunoco and others recently took a step forward after years of hurdles. A Chittenden County Superior Court judge has denied the oil companies’ request to dismiss Vermont’s lawsuit. The complaint, which then-Attorney General TJ Donovan filed in 2021, alleges the companies have long known that their products cause climate change — which dramatically increases the risk of dangerous extreme weather — and have actively misrepresented the products’ risks to Vermont consumers. Vermont is one of at least six states to sue the oil companies for misleading consumers about their products. The oil companies argued against Vermont’s case on grounds including statute of limitations, freedom of speech, and the state’s jurisdictional authority to bring the lawsuit. Superior Court Judge Megan Shafritz wrote in a Dec. 10 decision that the companies did not present viable reasons to dismiss the case. Previously, the oil companies had attempted to move the lawsuit from state to federal court, stalling the case for years. Last February, the federal district court in Burlington sided with the state, saying the case belongs in state court. Last week, the oil companies appealed the judge’s Dec. 10 decision, said Attorney General Charity Clark, who took on the case when she assumed office in 2022.“We’ll see what the Superior Court has to say about that. We will obviously be opposing,” she said. Clark said she thinks the companies are “running out of tricks.” Still, the lawsuit could go on for years, she said. “I don’t think that this is going to be resolved anytime soon, but we’re in it for the long haul,” she said. READ MORE Clark said she believes the issue is important to Vermonters, who care about the environment.“They express that value in the purchases they make, and in this instance, they were deprived of knowing the truth about fossil fuel companies because the fossil fuel companies actively deprived them of the truth. And that’s what this case is about,” she said. Increasingly, states are taking action against oil giants in an effort to hold them accountable for climate change. Separate from the consumer protection lawsuit, Vermont lawmakers passed a measure during the most recent legislative session that requires the world’s biggest oil companies to pay for damages that their products have caused in the state by way of climate change, called the Climate Superfund Act. The law directs each oil company to pay Vermont an amount calculated using those damages and the corresponding percentage of emissions that the company produced between 1995 and 2024. Vermont would use the money to pay for projects that protect its residdents from climate change and help the state adapt to it. Vermont was the first state in the nation to pass such a law. New York became the second on Dec. 26, when Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a similar measure. On Monday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Petroleum Institute filed a lawsuit against Vermont, calling the law unconstitutional, first reported by Bloomberg Law. Clark declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the state had not been served yet. The state is likely to file a response in the coming months. Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont attorney general’s lawsuit against oil giants advances after years of hurdles.