"The most important climate case in the United States"

We know that the fossil fuel industry has been very aware of the devastating and cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions for decades. “An estimate of lobbying expenditures related to climate change legislation in the U.S. Congress from 2000 to 2016 [shows] over $2 billion was spent on this activity, constituting 3.9% of total lobbying expenditures. Major sectors involved in lobbying were fossil fuel and transportation corporations, utilities, and affiliated trade associations.” The climate lobby: a sectoral analysis of lobbying spending on climate change in the USA, 2000 to 2016 by Robert Brulle, published in Climatic Change, July 19, 2018, which also produced the above pie chart. And Big Oil is still spending billions of PR and lobbying dollars.

Paralleling the long battle fought by Big Tobacco for decades – employing medical disinformation, coverups and intensive lobbying – it seems that the battle to hold Big Oil responsible for the havoc we call “climate change” or “global warming” cannot fly through a gridlocked and impotent Congress, where Big Oil is a major campaign contributor. With Big Tobacco, the move for accountability truly began with state agencies suing for all the measurable damages that cigars and cigarettes caused within their jurisdiction. While you are unlikely to see such litigation from fossil fuel producing red states, you can witness that effort in blue states. Oddly enough, it’s not California that is taking the lead (although I do expect them to follow), that nascent effort emanates from Hawaii.

As reported by Emily Sanders, reprinted in the November 6th issue of FastCompany.com, “A climate lawsuit filed by the City and County of Honolulu that could make oil and gas majors pay billions of dollars in damages for deceiving the public about their products’ role in climate change is now positioned to be the first of its kind to go to trial, following a ruling from the Hawai‘i Supreme Court. Legal experts say Honolulu’s case could set a precedent for similar climate lawsuits filed by dozens of U.S. communities and make history as the first time fossil fuel companies would have to face the evidence of a decades-long industry campaign of climate deception in court.

“The unanimous ruling, written by Hawai‘i Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald, upheld a lower court ruling that rejected two key arguments the oil companies made in an effort to dismiss the case. The court’s decision means that the case can now enter into full discovery—the phase during which plaintiffs can collect more evidence to prove their case—and a state court can finally set a date for the case to go to trial.

“‘This is now the most important climate case in the United States,’ says former Hawai‘i Supreme Court Justice Michael Wilson, who retired earlier this year after a decade on the state’s highest court. ‘Now the Hawai‘i Supreme Court has allowed a jury of 12 Hawai’i citizens to decide whether lies by the oil companies created large-scale billion dollar damage to our county and city of Honolulu.’

“The city and county’s lawsuit charges ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP, and other oil giants with orchestrating ‘sophisticated disinformation campaigns to cast doubt on the science, causes, and effects of global warming,’ thus delaying climate action for decades. The complaint argues that the companies violated state common laws like public nuisance, failure to warn, and trespass—and that their conduct left Honolulu facing floods, storms, heat waves, wildfires, rising seas, and other climate disasters that have cost billions of dollars in destruction and repairs. Now, plaintiffs contend, Big Oil should help foot the bill for the damage.

“But the oil and gas industry has bitterly disputed the case, first attempting to move it out of state court and, when that failed, filing motions to have it dismissed entirely. Along the way, a pro-fossil fuel industry group even launched a PR blitz in right wing media against Recktenwald, the state’s Republican-appointed Chief Justice, accusing him of bias for giving a presentation through the nonprofit Environmental Law Institute that sought ‘to educate fellow judges about the basic science they need to adjudicate the climate litigation over which they preside.’ (Oil company lawyers, including one involved in Honolulu’s case, are also involved in ELI. One law professor said the attack on Recktenwald was ‘grasping at straws.’).”

Indeed, Big Tobacco was crushed by such litigation. From 1965 to 2019, the prevalence of cigarette smoking (measuring those over 18) in the U.S. has decreased from about 42 percent to 11.5%. A master settlement with Big Tobacco from 1998 generated a continuing measure, with a floor of $206 billion, for the damages smoking caused in the US.

All those red state politicians, lobbying to open government land for oil drilling – we are already fossil fuel self-sufficient and the largest oil producer in the world – claim that will reduce prices. Trust me, American oil extractors will never give Americans a discount because they are good citizens and the oil came from “here.” Oil is a global commodity priced by global markets. The United States does not set oil prices! So, when Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia, etc. pull back on their oil production, the price of oil spikes up accordingly; unless the US government subsidizes the price at the pump, consumers will pay more. Those MAGA pledges to extract more oil to drop gasoline and diesel prices may sound good on the campaign trail, but they are playing American voters for fools. They cannot deliver. So, unless we really build up alternative energy for vehicles and electrical power generation, that MAGA attempt to slash those non-fossil fuel choices are going to be a rather direct contributor to higher gasoline and general energy costs… and more climate change devastation!

I’m Peter Dekom, and this rightwing “protect big industries no matter the consequences” mantra will further toxify our world and will not reduce consumer energy prices!