Lawsuits against oil companies, such as the suits that New York's mayor announced on Wednesday, are an absurd way to fight climate change while they waste resources that could be better spent on real solutions to environmental problems, according to Linda Kelly, general counsel of the National Association of Manufacturers.

That's why Kelly has made the news at least twice this week attacking what she sees as misguided litigation against energy producers, which are considered “manufacturers” and part of NAM. She spoke with Corporate Counsel Thursday about her strong criticism of the energy lawsuits in New York as well as ongoing suits filed by San Francisco and Oakland last September over climate change.

“We recognize the problem of climate change and think it is important to address it,” Kelly said. “But we also believe that we don't want to pick winners and losers in the energy field.” She said there should be efforts to work toward a solution, not to seek a scapegoat in the energy sector.

Kelly directs NAM's Center for Legal Action and leads its Manufacturers' Accountability Project, begun last November to hold key actors accountable when they take actions such as nuisance lawsuits that can harm manufacturers and their employees.

On Wednesday she took aim at New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision to sue five investor-owned fossil fuel companies that he said were “most responsible for global warming.” They are Exxon Mobil Corp., BP, ConocoPhillips Co., Royal Dutch Shell, and Chevron Corp.

Blaming climate change for Tropical Storm Sandy, which took 44 lives and caused $19 billion in devastation in New York, the mayor said he was seeking “billions of dollars in damages to protect us against extreme weather and rising seas.”

Kelly accused the mayor of playing politics. “Mayor de Blasio is just the latest mayor to lead his city into misguided litigation against America's energy manufacturers,” she said. “We've seen this activist playbook and these central players before, including plaintiff's attorney Matt Pawa.”

Matthew Pawa co-chairs the environmental group in the Boston office of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, a class action litigation firm. “He shopped this cause of action around to state attorneys general and a number of municipalities,” Kelly said, using the same template against the same five energy companies.

“We've been trying to educate the public and others about what's behind all these lawsuits,” she explained. She said the damages sought are unrelated to fossil fuel production, and instead are designed to get companies to pay millions of dollars for infrastructure and for legal fees.

On Tuesday, Kelly also issued a statement condemning the California climate lawsuits, and praising a new petition filed by Exxon Mobil which claims to show the suits were filed in bad faith. The recent petition says the seven California municipalities failed to disclose in their municipal bond prospectuses the same climate-related risks as they detail in their lawsuits against energy manufacturers.

Kelly's statement said, “These seven California municipalities are taking energy manufacturers to court, blaming them for catastrophes they are sure will happen. But when it came time to secure money from investors, these cities failed to mention the certain risks they cite in their lawsuits.”

The statement went on, “Either the claims against energy manufacturers are frivolous, or the municipalities have made misleading, and perhaps fraudulent, statements to investors.”

Kelly said there is an ongoing effort by plaintiffs attorneys to expand the use of such suits to target others in the manufacturing sector. That's why her 2018 priorities include “continuing to push back on these lawsuits as they are filed, taking any opportunity to become involved in the suits themselves, as an amicus or as a party.”

She said NAM files 60 to 70 amicus briefs a year in state, federal and some international forums. And it has about 12 ongoing cases in which it is a party, either by itself or with other associations.

Another priority is fighting overregulation, which she said has a “tremendous impact” on manufacturers. “As the regulatory environment changes, we are shifting our focus from challenging regulations to being a defender of deregulation,” Kelly said.

She said she also expects “some of the pressure in the labor and environmental spaces to migrate to state legislatures and courts.”