The Civil War-ending Battle of Gettysburg recently marked its 161st anniversary. Citizens of different states taking up arms against one another seems like an impossibility in the modern age. Yet if subversive lawsuits against energy companies are pursued to their natural end, history may repeat itself.

Right now, the battle is in the court system. Nineteen attorneys general have asked the Supreme Court to grant a motion to file a bill of complaint against five others for trying to enact disastrous energy policies on a nationwide basis. Alabama, et al. v. California, et al. names California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, and my own state of Rhode Island as trying to extract enormous payouts from energy companies that would lead to increased energy prices on a nationwide basis and the bankrupting of many local economies.