Recently, the city of Chicago filed a lawsuit against a handful of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, along with a prominent energy industry association. The suit alleges that the defendants, including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Phillips 66, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute, have contributed to climate change to the extent that it has impacted Chicago through adverse weather events.
“There is no justice without accountability,” Chicago Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson stated. “From the unprecedented poor air quality that we experienced last summer to the basement floodings that our residents on the West Side experienced, the consequences of this crisis are severe, as are the costs of surviving them. That is why we are seeking to hold these defendants accountable.”
The lawsuit further claims that these companies have deceived consumers about the alleged dangers of their fossil-fuel-related products and their contribution to climate change. The legal initiative seeks to assign responsibility to these defendants for weather-related impacts on the Windy City.
“Evidence shows that these defendants intentionally misled Chicago residents about the climate change-related dangers associated with their oil and gas products. If unabated, climate change could result in catastrophic impacts on our city,” said Chicago counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry. “We bring this lawsuit to ensure that the defendants who have profited from the deception campaign bear responsibility for their conduct.”
API Senior Vice President and General Counsel Ryan Meyers hit back at the lawsuit, claiming energy companies have provided various benefits to the American public. “The record of the past two decades demonstrates that the industry has achieved its goal of providing affordable, reliable American energy to U.S. consumers while substantially reducing emissions and our environmental footprint,” he said.
Meyers further claimed that there is a politically coordinated effort to attack the energy industry. He suggested that the lawsuits are a waste of time and financial resources. “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,” Meyers added. “Climate policy is for Congress to debate and decide, not a patchwork of city halls and courts.”
Theodore Boutrous, who serves as counsel for Chevron Corporation and is a partner at the firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, stated that the issue of climate change should be tackled through the democratic legislative process instead of the city of Chicago’s litigation.
“Addressing climate change requires a coordinated international policy response, not meritless local litigation over lawful and essential energy production,” Boutrous explained “As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held in dismissing a similar New York City lawsuit, ‘such a sprawling case is simply beyond the limits of state law.’”
However, Richard Wiles, the president of the Center for Climate Integrity, an advocate of the lawsuits against the companies, complained that “Big Oil” should be held accountable for its alleged deception of the American people.
“Big Oil has lied to the American people for decades about the catastrophic climate risks of their products, and now Chicago and communities across the country are rightfully insisting they pay for the damage they’ve caused,” Wiles said. “With Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, joining the fray, there is no doubt that we are witnessing a historic wave of lawsuits that could finally hold Big Oil accountable for the climate crisis they knowingly caused.”
Featured image credit: U.S. DOD photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brandon_Johnson_230527-A-OH563-4600_(1).jpg
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