California Goes To Court Against Fossil Fuel Giants
By James Donahue
December 27, 2017
Hats off this month to both the City and County of Santa Cruz, California, where I make my home. Our elected leadership has just joined other coastal California communities in separate lawsuits against 29 oil, gas and coal companies seeking climate change related damages.
A story by reporter Nicholas Ibarra in the Santa Cruz Sentinel noted that the complaints filed December 20 in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, charge negligence by the fuel companies and seek damages that may run hundreds of millions of dollars. If successful, the litigation may help force a desired shift from fossil fuels to alternative natural energy sources.
Santa Cruz Mayor David Terrazas called for other cities and government agencies all over the nation to join the California movement and tell big fuel that “enough is enough. Making the taxpaying residents of coastal communities like ours bear the costs of rising sea levels is simply not acceptable.”
Santa Cruz County has long been known for its fine sandy beaches that have been a big tourist attraction. As sea waters rise, however the beaches are disappearing and beach front properties are threatened with serious erosion.
Santa Cruz has officially jumped into the fray with San Francisco, Oakland and San Mateo County in what appears to be the beginning of a massive class action lawsuit designed to force big fuel companies to pay for damages caused by climate change, rising sea levels, fierce storms and forest fires, all linked to the warming planet and blamed on corporate cover-ups of rising carbon dioxide and methane gas levels in the atmosphere.
While an international movement is going on by the industrial nations that participated in the 2015 Paris Agreement to curtail the burning of fossil fuels, President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States involvement. He also has refused to include climate change as a major political issue to be faced by his administration.
Allegations have been made that a large federal tax overhaul passed only last week by both House and Senate, were a pay-back to big corporate donations that swept Trump and his right-wing Republican legislators into power in 2016.
Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Leopold and Mayor Terrazas have both stepped out in a growing California battle to fight the Trump-imposed campaign to keep gas guzzling vehicles and gas and coal fired heating systems operating in the United States. The state is also fighting the use of fracking by drilling companies.
In an open letter published in June, 2017, six prominent scientists and diplomats, including Christiana Figueres, former United Nations climate chief, and Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf, professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University, Germany, warned that they believe the world had about three years before the problem of global warming becomes irreversible. By then, the co-signers wrote, we will be experiencing the worst effects of climate change and life in general will be getting unbearable.
The six authors of the letter are calling for cities and private business interests to fight emissions and work to meet the Paris accord goals despite the refusal of the Trump Administration to pitch in. California leaders have heard the call and are taking steps to join the fight.
Among the defendants in the Santa Cruz case are the extraction-industry giants Chevron Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, BP PLC and the Shell Oil Company. The complaints claim that these companies all knew about the impact of fossil fuel on climate and sea levels for at least the last 50 years but concealed this information and fought efforts at regulation.
The Ibarra story quoted rebuttal statements issued by Chevron and Linda Kelly, general counsel for the National Association of Manufacturers. Chevron’s statement said the suits are “factually and legally meritless.” Kelly said they are the latest in “coordinated attacks against manufacturers” attempting to “rake in millions of dollars through the courts by politicizing natural disasters.”
By James Donahue
December 27, 2017
Hats off this month to both the City and County of Santa Cruz, California, where I make my home. Our elected leadership has just joined other coastal California communities in separate lawsuits against 29 oil, gas and coal companies seeking climate change related damages.
A story by reporter Nicholas Ibarra in the Santa Cruz Sentinel noted that the complaints filed December 20 in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, charge negligence by the fuel companies and seek damages that may run hundreds of millions of dollars. If successful, the litigation may help force a desired shift from fossil fuels to alternative natural energy sources.
Santa Cruz Mayor David Terrazas called for other cities and government agencies all over the nation to join the California movement and tell big fuel that “enough is enough. Making the taxpaying residents of coastal communities like ours bear the costs of rising sea levels is simply not acceptable.”
Santa Cruz County has long been known for its fine sandy beaches that have been a big tourist attraction. As sea waters rise, however the beaches are disappearing and beach front properties are threatened with serious erosion.
Santa Cruz has officially jumped into the fray with San Francisco, Oakland and San Mateo County in what appears to be the beginning of a massive class action lawsuit designed to force big fuel companies to pay for damages caused by climate change, rising sea levels, fierce storms and forest fires, all linked to the warming planet and blamed on corporate cover-ups of rising carbon dioxide and methane gas levels in the atmosphere.
While an international movement is going on by the industrial nations that participated in the 2015 Paris Agreement to curtail the burning of fossil fuels, President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States involvement. He also has refused to include climate change as a major political issue to be faced by his administration.
Allegations have been made that a large federal tax overhaul passed only last week by both House and Senate, were a pay-back to big corporate donations that swept Trump and his right-wing Republican legislators into power in 2016.
Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Leopold and Mayor Terrazas have both stepped out in a growing California battle to fight the Trump-imposed campaign to keep gas guzzling vehicles and gas and coal fired heating systems operating in the United States. The state is also fighting the use of fracking by drilling companies.
In an open letter published in June, 2017, six prominent scientists and diplomats, including Christiana Figueres, former United Nations climate chief, and Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf, professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University, Germany, warned that they believe the world had about three years before the problem of global warming becomes irreversible. By then, the co-signers wrote, we will be experiencing the worst effects of climate change and life in general will be getting unbearable.
The six authors of the letter are calling for cities and private business interests to fight emissions and work to meet the Paris accord goals despite the refusal of the Trump Administration to pitch in. California leaders have heard the call and are taking steps to join the fight.
Among the defendants in the Santa Cruz case are the extraction-industry giants Chevron Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, BP PLC and the Shell Oil Company. The complaints claim that these companies all knew about the impact of fossil fuel on climate and sea levels for at least the last 50 years but concealed this information and fought efforts at regulation.
The Ibarra story quoted rebuttal statements issued by Chevron and Linda Kelly, general counsel for the National Association of Manufacturers. Chevron’s statement said the suits are “factually and legally meritless.” Kelly said they are the latest in “coordinated attacks against manufacturers” attempting to “rake in millions of dollars through the courts by politicizing natural disasters.”