Fossil Fuel Deception Case16 Mar 2022 12:34
Court Case In Hawaii Against Fossil Fuel Companies Passes Major Milestone
History was made in Hawaii recently when a state judge ruled that a lawsuit seeking damages from major oil and gas companies for their climate disinformation campaigns can move forward in state court. The ruling sets an important precedent that the fossil fuel industry has been fighting to prevent in similar cases across the country.
The case against ExxonMobil, Chevron, Sunoco, Shell Oil, and other companies argues that major oil and gas producers have worked for decades to deceive the public and policymakers about the devastating impacts of climate change. As a result, the lawsuit claims, communities in Hawaii are now facing increased flooding, more extreme weather events, and rising seas. Under the current emissions trajectory, the state is threatened by more than three feet of sea level rise within the century which could put more than $19.6 billion of land and infrastructure at risk. As the lawsuit charges, these impacts were not inevitable and were exacerbated by the fossil fuel companies’ deliberate decisions to hide findings and sow public mistrust in climate science to prevent action to address climate change.
UCS research has shown that scientists at major fossil fuel companies have understood the connection between their products and climate change for more than five decades. Instead of addressing the looming global crisis their companies were helping to create, decisionmakers at these major fossil fuel companies chose to actively downplay and distort the mounting evidence of climate change. These industry leaders mounted campaigns to block climate action. As UCS has detailed in the disinformation playbook, the fossil fuel industry and its industry trade groups have harassed scientists and manufactured uncertainty with no scientific basis. Unfortunately, many of these deceptive tactics by the fossil fuel industry continue today. Lawsuits such as the one brought in Hawaii seek to expose them and hold the companies accountable for their deception.
What makes the Hawaiian ruling so notable is that it is the first climate disinformation case to move to the legal “discovery” phase in which the companies charged will be forced to disclose internal company documents and correspondence. In this case, lawyers for the fossil fuel companies pushed three separate motions to try to dismiss the lawsuit and failed all three times.
Dozens of similar cases in the United States are now pending that also seek to hold oil and gas companies accountable for their intentional decisions to spread disinformation.
https://cleantechnica.com/2022/03/15/court-case-in-hawaii-against-fossil-fuel-companies-passes-major-milestone/
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