A big suburban Philadelphia county has joined dozens of different native governments across the nation in suing the oil business, asserting that main oil producers systematically deceived the general public about their position in accelerating international warming.
Bucks County’s lawsuit in opposition to a half dozen oil firms blames the oil business for extra frequent and intense storms — together with one final summer season that killed seven people there — flooding, saltwater intrusion, excessive warmth “and other devastating climate change impacts” from the burning of fossil fuels. The county desires oil producers to pay to mitigate the harm brought on by local weather change.
“These companies have known since at least the 1950s that their ways of doing business were having calamitous effects on our planet, and rather than change what they were doing or raise the alarm, they lied to all of us,” Bucks County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo stated in an announcement. “The taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for these companies and their greed.”
Dozens of municipal governments in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Carolina and Puerto Rico in addition to eight states and Washington, D.C., have filed suit lately in opposition to oil and gasoline firms over their position in local weather change, based on the Middle for Local weather Integrity.
Bucks County, which borders Philadelphia and has a inhabitants of about 650,000, is the primary native authorities in Pennsylvania to sue, the local weather group stated. The county’s 31 municipalities will spend $955 million via 2040 to deal with local weather change impacts, the group forecast final 12 months.
Residents and companies “should not have to bear the costs of climate change alone,” the county argued in its go well with, filed Monday in county court docket. It cited a number of excessive climate occasions in Bucks County, together with a extreme storm in July that dumped seven inches of rain in 45 minutes and brought about a lethal flash flood.
The go well with named as defendants BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Philips 66, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute, an business group.
Chevron stated via its lawyer, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., that “addressing climate change requires a coordinated international policy response, not meritless local litigation over lawful and essential energy production.”
API stated in response that the business supplies “affordable, reliable energy energy to U.S. consumers” whereas taking steps over the previous twenty years to cut back emissions. It stated local weather change coverage is the accountability of Congress, not native governments and courts.
“This ongoing, coordinated campaign to wage meritless, politicized lawsuits against a foundational American industry and its workers is nothing more than a distraction from important national conversations and an enormous waste of taxpayer resources,” Ryan Meyers, the group’s senior vp and normal counsel, stated in an announcement.
In 2021, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit by New York Metropolis in opposition to 5 oil firms to recoup damages brought on by international warming.
