Santos plays the climate culture wars card in greenwashing lawsuit
Santos' court battle against allegations of greenwashing could be set for a cultural stoush over the biases of a potential court-appointed referee.
Oil and gas company Santos' courtroom battle with the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility over allegations of greenwashing is struggling to move out of administrative stages in Sydney's Federal Court.
The dispute has lawyers for the ACCR begging for a court date that so far, Justice Michael Lee doesn't feel able to offer. Now Lee's plans to submit the case to a court-appointed referee to report on specific questions in the case, akin to a special jury, could be under threat.
Santos is pushing back hard against the concept arguing that the potential candidates for the role from the scientific community would all have "entrenched" biases against it.
ACCR is desperately keen for the matter to proceed to trial. "We are ambitiously, earnestly and hands on knees begging for a hearing date," ACCR barrister Sebastian Hartford Davis told the court today.
