A general view of oil drilling equipment on federal land near Fellows, California, US, April 15, 2023. REUTERS/Nicola Groom/File Photo Obtaining licensing rights
Sept. 16 (Reuters) – The state of California has filed a lawsuit against major oil companies including Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Shell PLC (SHEL.L) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N), accusing them of underestimating risks… Form it. with fossil fuels, according to a court filing Friday.
The lawsuit, which also targets BP (BP.L) and ConocoPhillips (COP.N), alleges that the energy giants’ actions caused tens of billions of dollars in damages, and accuses them of deceiving the public, according to a lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court in 2018. San Francisco showed.
The American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group, is also listed as a defendant in the case, according to the filing.
The filing showed that California sought to establish a mitigation fund to cover future damage from climate-related disasters in the state.
“California is taking action to hold big polluters accountable,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The legal action follows dozens of lawsuits filed in recent years against the fossil fuel industry by states and municipalities across the United States, widely alleging damage from climate impacts including extreme weather.
Climate policy is something Congress discusses and decides, not the judicial system, the American Petroleum Institute said in an email response to Reuters.
Shell echoed this sentiment in an emailed statement, saying, “We do not believe the courtroom is the appropriate place to address climate change.”
BP declined to comment, while Chevron and ConocoPhillips did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. ExxonMobil could not be contacted immediately.
(Reporting by Kanjik Ghosh and Lavanya Ahir in Bangalore and Nate Raymond in Boston; Preparing by Mohammed for the Arabic Bulletin) Editing by Mark Potter, Diane Craft and David Gregorio
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
“Reader. Infuriatingly humble coffee enthusiast. Future teen idol. Tv nerd. Explorer. Organizer. Twitter aficionado. Evil music fanatic.”