Faced with growing costs to protect its residents and businesses from climate change-related damages, the City of Richmond, California today joined the growing number of communities that are suing fossil fuel companies for knowingly contributing to climate change...The lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court in Contra Costa County.

Richmond is surrounded by water on three sides and is one of the poorest communities in the Bay Area, which makes the city both uniquely vulnerable to rising seas and exceptionally challenged in finding the resources to mitigate or adapt to the damage they cause.

...[T]oday’s lawsuit seeks to hold accountable 29 oil, gas, and coal companies for damages associated with both sea level rise and changes to the hydrologic cycle caused by greenhouse gas pollution from the companies’ products, including more frequent and severe heat waves, drought, and extreme precipitation events.

...The industry has known for decades that business-as-usual combustion of their products could be “severe” or even “catastrophic.” .... Yet instead of taking steps to reduce the threat to others, the industry actually increased production while spending billions on public relations, lobbying, and campaign contributions to hide the truth.

The City of Richmond is represented by its city attorneys and assisted by outside counsel from Sher Edling LLP.