A tort lawsuit by New York City against three of the largest energy companies in the world was dismissed Thursday by U.S. District Judge John Keenan of the Southern District of New York, who said the city’s attempt to make the case about the production, sale and marketing of fossil fuels couldn’t get around the fact the suit was, at its core, about emissions.

As such, the suit was doomed to the same fate as another suit the city was party to that ended when the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 found the federal Clean Air Act displaces common-law claims.