California and others take aim at Big Oil — will the strategy work?

they're still eyeing this strategy. i say just do it. let's see you prove climate change once and for all

Who should pay billions for climate disasters? California and others take aim at Big Oil — will the strategy work?


Big Oil faces mounting lawsuits as extreme weather worsens, with California leading efforts to make fossil fuel giants pay billions of dollars for the climate damage they have long denied.

Across the country, states, cities, tribes and environmental groups have filed dozens of lawsuits against oil companies alleging that they misled the public about the dangers of their products. These cases share a core argument: Oil companies knew fossil fuels were driving climate change and lied about it.

California and other plaintiffs are recycling a legal strategy deployed during the 1990s, when states alleged that tobacco companies knew cigarettes cause cancer. Four large companies settled the cases by paying billions to fund states’ anti-smoking campaigns and other efforts. The manufacturers also must make annual payments to the states as long as they sell cigarettes in the United States.

The settlement set a powerful precedent for using litigation to hold industries accountable for public harm caused by deceptive practices.

“All of these (climate) cases are fundamentally deception cases,” said Benjamin Franta, a professor of climate law at University of Oxford and leader of its Climate Litigation Lab.

For decades, climate cases leaned on environmental laws and regulations rather than corporate accountability, Franta said. But with deception cases, “you can go directly after the private companies,” he said, and “the damages could be enormous.”

LINK