* Maryland Supreme Court dismisses lawsuits against oil

companies

* Local governments' claims preempted by federal law,

court rules

* Dissent argues state claims not fully displaced by

federal law

By Nate Raymond

March 25 (Reuters) - Maryland's highest court has

rejected efforts by three municipal and county governments to

hold major oil and gas companies including Exxon Mobil ( XOM ),

BP and Chevron ( CVX ) responsible for helping cause

climate change.

In a ruling that came as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to

consider whether similar cases should be allowed to proceed in

other states, the Maryland Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the

dismissal of lawsuits filed by Baltimore, Annapolis and Anne

Arundel County.

Those lawsuits sought to recover damages from the

multinational companies based on allegations that they deceived

consumers and the public about the dangers associated with their

fossil fuel products, which contribute to greenhouse-gas

pollution and climate change.

The lawsuits alleged that their products were tied to the

emission of a substantial amount of the greenhouse-gas pollution

released into the atmosphere for the last five decades, causing

sea levels to rise and other environmental impacts affecting the

local governments' property and citizens.

The lawsuits asserted claims arising under Maryland law

including for public and private nuisance, strict liability and

negligent failure to warn and trespass.

But the Maryland Supreme Court, on a 6-1 vote, ruled those

lawsuits must be dismissed in their entirety, with five justices

in the majority holding that the local governments' state law

claims are preempted by federal law.

Justice Brynja Booth, writing for the majority, said that

for over a century, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that cases

involving the regulation of interstate pollution arise under

federal law, meaning that any state law claims the local

governments asserted were displaced by federal law.

"No amount of creative pleading can masquerade the fact that

the local governments are attempting to utilize state law to

regulate global conduct that is purportedly causing global

harm," Booth wrote.

Justices Shirley Watts and Peter Killough dissented from

parts of the majority's ruling and disagreed with the preemption

holding, though only Killough would have held that any part of

the state law claims could survive dismissal.

Killough said the companies in seeking to fight off what

amounted to fraud cases "invoked the Clean Air Act, the EPA

regulatory authority, and the specter of a patchwork of state

tort regimes supplanting a uniform federal emissions policy."

"It was a compelling, if misleading, frame, and the Majority

accepted it entirely," Killough wrote. "But not a single

emissions regulation is implicated in this case."

Sara Gross, chief of the affirmative litigation division of

the Baltimore City Department of Law, in a statement said the

city agreed with Killough's dissent.

The Maryland high court handed down its ruling a month after

the 6-3 conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear

a similar case by officials in Boulder, Colorado in a dispute

that could affect dozens of similar lawsuits around the country.

In that case, the Colorado Supreme Court last year rejected

arguments by Exxon, Suncor Energy and other companies that

Boulder's lawsuit would interfere with the federal regulation of

greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

"Claims for climate-related damages under state laws are

precluded by clear U.S. Supreme Court precedent," Theodore

Boutrous, a lawyer for Chevron ( CVX ) at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, said

in a statement.

The case is Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. BP P.L.C.,

et al, Maryland Supreme Court, No. SCM-REG-0011-2025.

For the local governments: Vic Sher of Sher Edling

For Chevron ( CVX ): Theodore Boutrous of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Read more:

US Supreme Court to hear bid by oil companies to toss

climate suits

Energy companies win dismissal of Baltimore's climate change

case

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston)