Baltimore’s climate change claim against Big Oil returned to state court

Baltimore’s multimillion-dollar climate change lawsuit against about two dozen fossil fuel companies belongs in state court rather than federal court, a U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday in a defeat for Big Oil. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court rejected the companies’ argument that federal courts have jurisdiction over Baltimore’s claim because the city’s allegations of environmental harm are national in scope and involve not just state and local law but the federal Clean Air Act.