"California Joins States Suing Big Oil for Its Role in the Climate Crisis", 16 Sep 2023

The state of California has jumped into the ring in the fight to hold some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel producers accountable for their role in driving the worsening climate crisis. On Friday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against five oil and gas majors including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, and ConocoPhillips as well as their chief lobby group the American Petroleum Institute. The lawsuit alleges these entities deliberately deceived the public about the dangers of fossil fuels and their impact on the climate system, and effectively engineered a delayed societal response to addressing the climate problem...

California has become the eighth state to file a climate liability lawsuit... Given its sheer size, California’s move to take legal action adds significant weight to this mounting roster of states...

Misleading advertising is among the charges the lawsuit brings, along with misleading environmental marketing; unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business practices; products liability; pollution and destruction of natural resources; and public nuisance. California is seeking monetary damages, specifically in the form of an abatement fund to help mitigate the rising costs associated with climate disasters and climate adaptation...

While other climate liability lawsuits against fossil fuel companies have been tied up in procedural battles for years, many of the cases are now on track towards trial in state courts following a pivotal decision from the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year. That decision declined the industry defendants’ request to intervene and to rule that the litigation cannot advance in state courts...

California is also encouraging other states and even other countries to step into the ring alongside it in the effort to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable...