California Cities Sue Oil Companies over Climate Change – IOTW Report

California Cities Sue Oil Companies over Climate Change

CPR:

City attorneys in San Francisco and Oakland, California, sued five oil companies in two coordinated lawsuits on Tuesday, arguing that the courts should hold these companies responsible for climate change, and force them to financially compensate the cities for harm the plaintiffs claim those companies are causing to the planet’s environment.

The two cities are suing five of the top petroleum companies from around the world: BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobile, and Royal Dutch Shell. These local municipalities are suing them under California law for being a public nuisance.

The lawsuits use virtually identical language, like accusing the oil companies with language such as, “For decades, Defendants have known that their fossil fuels pose risks of ‘severe’ and ‘catastrophic’ impacts on the global climate through the works and warnings of their own scientists or through their trade association.”

The cities’ complaints impugn the worst possible motives to the oil companies, comparing their actions to a sustained “propaganda campaign to deceive the public” to encourage “fuel consumption at levels that (as Defendants knew) [were] certain to severely harm the public.”

The lawsuits are demanding money from the companies on a scale to offset all of the effects of climate change in those cities. While the lawsuit does not provide specific amounts, the plaintiffs could advance theories that would claim that those numbers are in the billions of dollars.

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23 Comments on California Cities Sue Oil Companies over Climate Change

  1. What a stretch. This horseshit lawsuit should be laughed out of court. Failing that, all the named companies should pull out of Cali entirely and let them live with their D-cell powered battery cars.

    (Sorry, Bad Brad, but I believe you were thinking about leaving anyway.)

    🙂

  2. Show me the damage? They haven’t been hit with hurricanes or tornadoes lately. The fire-flood-drought cycle can be shown to have existed long before the oil companies. What are they going to complain about? Excess sunshine?

    I’m with joe6pak, turn off the petroleum spigot. Ship every drop of distillate out of state.

  3. joe6pak – Somthing even easier and quicker to do is to simply locate the gas meter in your home and move the shut-off valve on the supply side to the OFF position and flip the main breakers to OFF as well while yer at it!
    Now how many of these phoney-baloney, smarmy, money-grubbing Dickhead lawyers are going to do that in their own mansions?

  4. Step 1. Your Honor, we have scientific proof that climate change existed for millions of years before our oil company. Judge: Proof is valid. Case dismissed.
    Step 2. All oil companies refuse to sell their product anywhere within the borders of the People’s Republic of California or to any entity that intends to sell within the PRoC.
    Problem solved.

  5. Petroleum is more than gasoline and diesel.
    Please surrender all of your plastics. Smartphones, water bottles, all of that stuff.

    Oh. No petroleum means no air travel. It means no UPS, USPS, FedEx shipments from amazon.

    Y’all want to play hard ball? This is what hard ball looks like.

  6. Also noticed that CITGO is not mentioned. Are there no CITGO stations in CA? CITGO is Commie Venezuela.
    If they do have a presence in CA and are not included in the lawsuit it betrays the true motive.

  7. To borrow the lawsuit’s language, “For decades, Defendants have known that coddling illegal aliens through non-cooperation with ICE agents put the citizens of those cities and surrounding areas at risk of loss of life and property.” We are seeking damages in the billions to compensate for every additional illegal act of all illegal aliens protected by sanctuary city laws.

  8. In the late 70’s I was living in Alaska and there some sort of energy crisis going on and our favorite bumper sticker was “Let the Bastards Freeze in the Dark”. I know, it wasn’t very sensitive of us, but it applies here.

  9. Loser pays. lol.
    Oil should just leave those cities. I know oil would lose a little bit of money, but how much does it cost to hire lawyers for every nuisance lawsuit?
    Just leave. Have the greenies drive 50 miles for gas and make California import plastics and cosmetics from other states. Clearly, CA is anti bidness, so take the hint and move out.

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