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That ruling cited a Delaware Supreme Court ruling last year in a lawsuit filed by Jennings against agricultural giant Monsanto over environmental damage from now-banned toxic chemicals known as PCBs. “Unlike contamination of land and water in Monsanto, damages caused by air pollution limited to state-owned property may be difficult to isolate and measure,” the judge wrote. “Nevertheless, that is an issue to be addressed at a later stage of the case.” Johnston also ruled that claims of “greenwashing” and misrepresentations by the defendants about fossil fuels’ effects on the climate must be dismissed, because the state failed to specifically identify alleged misrepresentations for each individual defendant. In dismissing the claims, the judge said she would give attorneys for the state a chance to amend the complaint to include particular allegations. Johnston also ruled that claims made by Jennings’ office under the Delaware Consumer Fraud Act are barred by the passage of time because the five-year statute of limitations has expired. “Defendants have provided evidence showing that the general public had knowledge of or had access to information about the disputes, regarding the existence of climate change and effects, decades prior to the expiration of the five-year limitations period,” Johnston wrote. “This information and evidence is unrefuted by the state.”
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