Puerto Rico is suing the oil industry for at least $1 billion, joining a list of nine states and dozens of municipalities taking legal action against oil companies for their alleged role in producing “climate change” effects, E&E News reported.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Justice Domingo Emanuelli Hernández, alleges BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and a variety of other energy giants engaged in climate deception by failing to provide warnings about the environmental risks of fossil fuel use, according to E&E News. The case is the latest in a slew of lawsuits from states, territories, municipalities and individuals related to climate change.
“These companies have known internally for decades that greenhouse gas pollution from fossil fuel products would have adverse impacts on the global climate and sea level,” Hernández said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, E&E News reported. “The defendants devised misinformation campaigns to discredit science around the burning of fossil fuels and its contributions to climate change.”
Ten attorneys general — in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico — and dozens of municipal or tribal governments in California, Colorado, Hawai`i, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and Puerto Rico, have filed cases against energy producers, according to Climate Integrity.
Groups of individuals have also gotten in on the action, with a group of 13 Hawaiian youths winning a $40 million settlement against the state after accusing the Hawaii Department of Transportation (DOT) of violating their rights by not doing enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Critics question the standing of these sorts of cases, claiming they are based on questionable doctrines and are an attempt by special interest groups to influence energy policy via legal means.
“Radical climate activists are bankrolling law firms like Sher Edling to try and bankrupt America’s energy producers and engage in shadow policymaking to ban fossil fuels,” a spokesperson for Republican Texas Sen. Cruz and the Senate Commerce Committee told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
California-based law firm Sher Edling currently has a contingency agreement to represent Puerto Rico in the recently announced billion-dollar suit, according to Bloomberg law. The law firm’s employees have handed tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates since 2016, according to Federal Election Commission data.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chevron, BP, Exxon Mobil and Sher Edling also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
