California files lawsuit against oil companies over fossil fuels deception

California fossil fuels lawsuit overview:

• Who: The State of California has sued oil giants including Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP.
• Why: California alleges the oil and gas companies concealed the known risks of climate change, preventing communities from taking critical action to prevent catastrophic consequences.
• Where: The climate lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court for San Francisco County.

The state of California has filed a climate change lawsuit against a group of oil giants for allegedly lying about the environmental damage associated with fossil fuels which has led to extreme weather that has cost the state tens of billions of dollars, Law360 reports.

The California fossil fuels lawsuit alleges oil giants such as ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and others hid knowledge that reliance on fossil fuels would have “catastrophic” results.

The defendants have allegedly known since at least the 1960s that fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollution that would change the climate, and that there was only a “narrow window of time” in which action could be taken to prevent the consequences from becoming catastrophic.

Instead of informing policymakers about the dangers of fossil fuels, the oil company executives disseminated disinformation about climate change, causing “a delayed societal response to global warming,” the California climate lawsuit alleges.

California climate lawsuit says defendants have profited from their misinformation

In recent years, California has been plagued by drought, wildfires, flooding and other extreme weather events allegedly due to the effects of climate change in the state.

“While defendants have promoted and/or profited from the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels, the state and its residents have spent, and will continue to spend, billions of dollars to recover from climate change-induced superstorms and wildfires,” the California climate lawsuit says.

Due to the effects of climate change, the state says, it will have to manage dwindling water supplies, fortify its infrastructure against sea level rise and protect the state and its residents from extreme heat and other climate change dangers.

The California fossil fuels lawsuit seeks to hold the oil and gas companies accountable for “the lies they have told and the damage they have caused.”

California has asked a judge to compel the defendants to establish an abatement fund to pay the costs of abating the effects of climate change. The California climate lawsuit also seeks damages, penalties, and restitution.

Consumers have recently filed a number of lawsuits against companies over their alleged effect on the environment.

What do you think about the California fossil fuels lawsuit? Let us know in the comments.

California is represented by Edward H. Ochoa, Laura J. Zuckerman, Heather M. Lewis, Erin Ganahl, Mari Mayeda, Brian Calavan and Kate Hammond of the California attorney general’s office.

The California climate lawsuit is The People of the State of California v. Exxon Mobil Corp., et al., in the California Superior Court for San Francisco County.

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