California Climate Lawsuits: Oil Companies Should Threaten to Leave

The state of California is the latest player to sue various oil companies for alleged damages from climate change, and the oil companies should call the state’s bluff.

Like the numerous cookie-cutter climate lawsuits filed by other states and municipalities against these same oil companies, the California lawsuit blames them for causing climate change and all manner of damages — drought, storms, heat, cold, wildfires, rising seas, and so on. And, like the other lawsuits, this one claims the oil companies knew about climate change as early as the 1960s and could have — should have — developed renewable-energy technologies to counteract it, but chose not to in favor of selling more profitable fossil fuels. Of course, it also claims the oil companies continue to damage California by supplying fossil-fuel products in the state.

JL

About the Author

Jonathan Lesser

Jonathan Lesser is the president of Continental Economics and an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

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The state of California is the latest player to sue various oil companies for alleged damages from climate change, and the oil companies should call the state’s bluff.

Like the numerous cookie-cutter climate lawsuits filed by other states and municipalities against these same oil companies, the California lawsuit blames them for causing climate change and all manner of damages — drought, storms, heat, cold, wildfires, rising seas, and so on. And, like the other lawsuits, this one claims the oil companies knew about climate change as early as the 1960s and could have — should have — developed renewable-energy technologies to counteract it, but chose not to in favor of selling more profitable fossil fuels. Of course, it also claims the oil companies continue to damage California by supplying fossil-fuel products in the state.