A decade ago there was a character on Kiwiblog who was a former ACT voter and Climate Change fanatic, so fanatic that he’d quit ACT because they were not willing to adopt his harsh ideas.

One of the things he began banging on about, circa 2015, was how various governments were starting to go after Big Oil, the evil fossil fuel companies who knew they were causing Climate Change but hid that fact from the public in order to sell their dirty products. Surprisingly it was not California but New York State that was giving him thrills as they launched lawsuits against BP, Exxon and company.

Well, that process has finally come to an ignominious end for New York:

In yet another demoralizing defeat for the nationally-coordinated climate litigation campaign – and a poignant moment of déjà vu  – New York City’s lawsuit against American energy producers yesterday has been dismissed (for the second time). The Supreme Court of the State of New York’s ruling firmly rejected the city’s claims that the companies had misled the public about their products and their sustainability commitments.

This defeat marks the third blow to New York – city and state – in their attempts to “take down” American energy companies.

Three times they’ve tried this bullshit since 2015 and three times they’ve lost. Mercifully this would appear to be the end.

At the first link you can read the details of this history of failure but there is one key point to pull out aside from the decision, starting with the irony that old oil money fueled this crap to start with:

The national campaign kicked off in the state in 2015 when former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman met with Greenpeace and the Rockefeller Family Fund, who spoon-fed him a novel climate lawsuit cooked up by academic activists in La Jolla, California years before.

It seems to be the story of age that we have stacks of rich people living off the glories of their ancestors while doing nothing similar to make us more prosperous. Just the opposite in fact, while their wealth protects them and they basically pull up behind themselves the ladder to wealth.