Current Events > CA sues oil companies for climate change deception

(+) Yeah! (+)

The state of California filed a lawsuit against some of the worlds largest oil and gas companies, claiming they deceived the public about the risks of fossil fuels now faulted for climate change-related storms and wildfires that caused billions of dollars in damage, officials said Saturday.

The civil lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in San Francisco also seeks creation of a fund financed by the companies to pay for recovery efforts following devastating storms and fires. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement the companies named in the lawsuit Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP should be held accountable.

For more than 50 years, Big Oil has been lying to us covering up the fact that theyve long known how dangerous the fossil fuels they produce are for our planet, Newsom said. California taxpayers shouldnt have to foot the bill for billions of dollars in damages wildfires wiping out entire communities, toxic smoke clogging our air, deadly heat waves, record-breaking droughts parching our wells.

The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group also named in the lawsuit, said climate policy should be debated in Congress, not the courtroom.

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 California taxpayer resources, institute senior vice president Ryan Meyers said in a statement.

That was echoed in a statement from Shell, which said the courtroom is not the proper venue to address global warming.

Addressing climate change requires a collaborative, society-wide approach, the energy giant said. We agree that action is needed now on climate change, and we fully support the need for society to transition to a lower-carbon future.
Californias legal action joins similar lawsuits filed by states and municipalities in recent years.

Californias suit adds to the growing momentum to hold Big Oil accountable for its decades of deception, and secure access to justice for people and communities suffering from fossil-fueled extreme weather and slow onset disasters such as sea level rise, Kathy Mulvey of the Union of Concerned Scientists said in an email.

The 135-page complaint argues that the companies have known since at least the 1960s that the burning of fossil fuels would warm the planet and change the climate, but they downplayed the looming threat in public statements and marketing.

It said the companies scientists knew as far back as the 1950s that the climate impacts would be catastrophic, and that there was only a narrow window of time in which communities and governments could respond.

Instead, the lawsuit said, the companies mounted a disinformation campaign beginning at least as early as the 1970s to discredit a growing scientific consensus on climate change,and disputed climate change-related risks.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement that the companies have fed us lies and mistruths to further their record-breaking profits at the expense of our environment. Enough is enough.

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 California taxpayer resources, institute senior vice president Ryan Meyers said in a statement.

Addressing climate change requires a collaborative, society-wide approach, the energy giant said. We agree that action is needed now on climate change, and we fully support the need for society to transition to a lower-carbon future.

Fuckin' gag.

And this will be tied up in court for years while lawyers throw technicalities at each other. What a joke of a species we are.

Even if they did then want?

Even if they did then want?

The civil lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in San Francisco also seeks creation of a fund financed by the companies to pay for recovery efforts following devastating storms and fires. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement the companies named in the lawsuit Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP should be held accountable..

Good. They knew over half a century
ago and purposefully and purposefully started disinformation campaigns to create narratives to sow doubt on climate change.

Even if they did then want? We'd had still needed it regardless. Especially when the public was and still is to afraid of nuclear energy to even consider it.

So California wants to sue a hand full of companies for misinformation and deception only right. This lawsuit has nothing to do with actually fighting climate change.
If it was a legit cause, they would sue the following:
-The countries of China and India for being the two largest polluters on the planet
-Every cattle producer as methane gas from cows are the main contributor to the green house gases
-Every airline which releases massive air pollution from their planes
-Every cruise ship for polluting the oceans by dumping their waste and sewage into the water
-Every plastic fabricator for creating micro plastics what pollute land and sea
-Every automobile manufacturer that creates machines that produce CO2 and Carbon monoxide
-Every energy provider that uses fossil fuel natural gas and diesel to generate their electricty grid

And this will be tied up in court for years while lawyers throw technicalities at each other. What a joke of a species we are.

So California wants to sue a hand full of companies for misinformation and deception only right. This lawsuit has nothing to do with actually fighting climate change.
If it was a legit cause, they would sue the following:
-The countries of China and India for being the two largest polluters on the planet
-Every cattle producer as methane gas from cows are the main contributor to the green house gases
-Every airline which releases massive air pollution from their planes
-Every cruise ship for polluting the oceans by dumping their waste and sewage into the water
-Every plastic fabricator for creating micro plastics what pollute land and sea
-Every automobile manufacturer that creates machines that produce CO2 and Carbon monoxide
-Every energy provider that uses fossil fuel natural gas and diesel to generate their electricty grid

Fuck em.

This trial is in the state of California.

What are they hoping to achieve from this, even if they can prove big oil changed the weather?

(Hint, they can't)

And you think this won't end up appealed in a federal court?

And BP has already proven they don't give a shit about being fined. The EPA has already found out they can't fine them out of business.

What are they hoping to achieve from this

I'll take this for starters.

Who's going to tell him?

-The countries of China and India for being the two largest polluters on the planet

It's funny because per capita the US pollutes twice as much as both countries combined

It's funny because per capita the US pollutes twice as much as both countries combined

It's funny because per capita the US pollutes twice as much as both countries combined

Bumping this thread.

Yes treat Oil companies like big tobacco who was sued in the 90/2000s, which also took goddamn to long to do. They need to pay through the nose everytime a fire or giant flood occurs.

"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," Rob Bonta, California's attorney general, said Saturday in a statement."

Should be time oil companies that have known about climate change internally be told to pay for the damage they cause.