The Maryland Supreme Court ruled against three local governments pursuing legal action against 26 multinational fossil fuel companies, rejecting claims that the companies caused damages through greenhouse gas emissions.

Baltimore, Annapolis, and Anne Arundel County filed separate lawsuits between 2018 and 2021, alleging that fossil fuel companies misled the public about environmental risks, contributed to rising sea levels, increased storm damage, and disrupted local hydrological systems. The suits argued that the defendants’ actions violated state public and private nuisance laws, imposed strict liability for failure to warn, and amounted to trespassing.

All three cases were initially dismissed by circuit courts. Baltimore’s court noted that public nuisance laws pertain to land use, not product liability, and that claims based on a duty to “warn the world” extended beyond Maryland’s jurisdiction. Anne Arundel and Annapolis faced similar dismissals on preemption grounds.

The appeals were consolidated, and the Maryland Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts’ decisions. The court emphasized that global warming results from worldwide emissions and that Maryland alone cannot be held responsible for harms linked to global greenhouse gas activity.

“The local governments are attempting to utilize state law to regulate global conduct causing global harm,” the opinion stated, adding that tracing emissions to specific damages in Maryland is impossible.

Chevron legal counsel Theodore Boutrous Jr. said the ruling is consistent with prior dismissals in climate litigation, noting that allowing states to impose independent climate policies would create an unworkable regulatory system.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a similar case brought by Boulder City and Boulder County against Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy, with arguments scheduled for late fall 2026. The Department of Justice under the Trump administration supported the fossil fuel companies’ petition, warning that unchecked local lawsuits could allow “every locality in America to sue essentially anyone” for climate change contributions.

The ruling underscores the limits of state and local authority in regulating global environmental issues and reinforces federal primacy in managing interstate pollution.