California accuses oil companies of misleading the public on the dangers of fossil fuels for decades. The state demands they help fund recovery efforts after climate change-fueled disasters.
The state of California has filed a sweeping climate lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron, as well as the domestic oil industry’s biggest lobby, the American Petroleum Institute.
The suit, filed on Friday in San Francisco Superior Court, claims that the companies misled the public for decades about climate change and the dangers of fossil fuels. It demands the companies help fund recovery efforts related to California’s extreme weather events, from rising sea levels to drought and wildfires, that have been supercharged by human-caused climate change.
« Oil and gas companies have privately known the truth for decades — that the burning of fossil fuels leads to climate change — but have fed us lies and mistruths to further their record-breaking profits at the expense of our environment. Enough is enough, » said Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general.
Oil and gas companies are already facing dozens of lawsuits from states and localities over their role in causing climate change. California’s case adds to the legal threats facing America’s oil and gas industry, forcing fossil fuel companies to defend themselves against the largest economy in the U.S. and a major oil-producing state.
« California’s decision to take Big Oil companies to court is a watershed moment in the rapidly expanding legal fight to hold major polluters accountable for decades of climate lies, » said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, a group focused on holding fossil fuel companies accountable for their role in driving climate change.
« Whether it’s fires, droughts, extreme heat, or sea-level rise, Californians have been living in a climate emergency caused by the fossil fuel industry, and now the state is taking decisive action to make those polluters pay, » Wiles added.Why now?
The lawsuit comes after years of extreme weather events have battered California’s economy and killed its residents. In just the past year, California has been inundated with record heat, explosive wildfires, unusual bouts of severe rain and snow, and a rising sea level that’s threatened the state’s shorelines — disasters that studies say were made more likely or more intense due to climate change.
