Chevron, BP to Argue Climate Change Appeals Before Same Panel

Chevron Corp., BP PLC, and other fossil fuel companies will get a chance to argue before a single panel of Ninth Circuit judges that several climate change suits should be litigated in federal court.

If the Ninth Circuit accepts the oil companies’ argument that federal law must be used to decide the cases, then the suits, filed by a number of California counties and cities, will likely continue in federal, rather than state, court.

The three-judge panel has yet to be assigned, but the five appeals will be kept together “to the extent practicable” on that panel’s roster ...