Will courts hold oil companies accountable for climate change disasters?
The attorney for Chevron Oil was attempting a classic bit of courtroom performance: Offer a stunning admission — then make a protest of innocence.
"Chevron accepts the scientific consensus regarding climate change," Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., an attorney for the California-based oil giant, said last month at the Federal District Courthouse in San Francisco. Then he dodged blame, telling the court that it's not energy companies like Chevron driving global warming, but "how people are leading their lives."
That scene encapsulates the central argument coming soon to courtrooms across the country: Who is responsible for the destructive effects of climate change — the hurricanes, droughts, fires and rising seas? Is it all of us? Or the companies that extract refine and sell fossil fuels?
In the landmark cases now in federal court, eight California cities and counties are suing to make Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and other companies pay for some of the tens of millions of dollars local governments must spend to prepare for rising sea levels. New York City filed a similar suit in January, arguing that "a corporation that makes a product causing severe harm when used exactly as intended should shoulder the costs of abating that harm." Last Tuesday, the city of Boulder and two Colorado counties sued ExxonMobil and Suncor (the biggest Canadian oil company) to recover costs stemming from extreme flooding, more frequent fires, and declining snowpack. Attorneys hint that more such lawsuits are coming.
How the courts decide to handle these various lawsuits will play a critical role in whether we, as a society, are able to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for knowingly wreaking havoc on Earth's entire atmosphere.
Much more: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mark-climate-litigation-20180422-story.html
An ice sculpture fashioned by protesters, in demonstration of how the company's policies are affecting the environment, slowly melts in Dallas, Texas on May 31, 2006. (LM Otero / Associated Press)
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