In Annapolis, it’s become routine for floodwaters to lap up against historic downtown buildings. The city is pursuing a $100 million plan to redevelop its waterfront and build a raised dock as a barrier against flooding.

But an effort by the Maryland capital and Anne Arundel County to make some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies pay damages for the consequences of climate change, like the rising seas that contribute to this flooding, is on hold after a judge threw out lawsuits from the two jurisdictions last week.

Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Steven Platt dismissed the suits, first filed in 2021, arguing that his court is the wrong venue for hashing out the issue since the city and county claims are preempted by federal law. The decision Thursday marks a reversal by Platt, who last year allowed the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County cases to move forward.

In their suits, Annapolis and Anne Arundel argued that more than two dozen major fossil fuel interests — among them ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and the American Petroleum Institute — knew for decades that their businesses were driving the damaging effects of climate change, but shielded that information from the public.

Lawsuits aimed at making fossil fuel giants pay for the costs of climate change have been filed by cities, states and counties across the country — with mixed results.

Judges hearing cases filed by Vermont and Honolulu, Hawaii recently allowed them to move forward, but a judge dismissed New York City’s lawsuit against big oil companies earlier this month.

Closer to home, a lawsuit filed by Baltimore met a similar fate last July. Baltimore’s case had risen all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court before justices sided with the industry and sent the case back to the circuit courts, where it was eventually dismissed.

In his decision in the Annapolis and Anne Arundel cases, Platt said he found the dismissal of Baltimore’s case by Circuit Court Judge Videtta A. Brown, along with decisions in New York and Delaware, persuasive, prompting him to go back on his previous position.

Platt also invokes a U.S. Supreme Court decision to argue that the federal Clean Air Act lays out a clear pathway for local governments to seek limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Annapolis and Anne Arundel County “can participate in the efforts to limit emissions collaboratively, but not in the form of litigation,” he concluded.

A spokesperson for Annapolis did not respond to a request for comment on the outcome. Anne Arundel County Attorney Gregory Swain said in a statement that the county respects the court’s decision but plans to appeal.

An attorney for Chevron, meanwhile, welcomed the judge’s dismissal and pointed to similar outcomes in California, Delaware and elsewhere in Maryland that he said make clear that these kinds of climate claims cannot be resolved in state courts.

“The Court’s decision joins the growing and nearly unanimous consensus, among both federal and state courts across the country, that these types of claims are precluded and preempted by federal law and must be dismissed under clear U.S. Supreme Court precedent,” said Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., with the international law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher.

This story has been updated to reflect that Steven Platt is a judge in Prince George's County.