Puerto Rico Sues Fossil Fuel Companies For Damages From Global Heating – CleanTechnica

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Puerto Rico filed suit against fossil fuel companies this week, The Verge reports. The complaint claims those companies misled the public about climate change and delayed a transition to clean energy. The suit seeks $1 billion in damages to help Puerto Rico defend itself against climate disasters. In a complaint filed in San Juan yesterday, the Puerto Rico Department of Justice said the companies violated trade law by promoting fossil fuels without adequately warning about the dangers. The defendants include ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips, and other energy companies.

It’s the latest in a slew of lawsuits attempting to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the consequences of climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are supercharging storms and other extreme weather events while rising seas eat away at island shorelines. Fossil fuel companies have known for decades that their products would cause global warming from research done by their own scientists and went ahead doing business as usual anyway.

In the complaint, Puerto Rico says it expects to pay billions of dollars in the future to cope with catastrophes made worse by climate change — including storms like Hurricane Maria, which killed thousands of people in 2017 and triggered power outages that lasted for months in some cases. The suit asks defendants to contribute to a fund that would be used to mitigate the consequences of climate change and pay for measures to strengthen Puerto Rico’s infrastructure against future climate-related calamities. Thirty seven municipalities in Puerto Rico and the capital city of San Juan have previously filed suit against fossil fuel companies, seeking to hold them accountable for the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria.

“It’s more important than ever for officials to stand up to the fossil fuel industry on behalf of their communities. The people of Puerto Rico deserve their day in court to hold Big Oil accountable,” Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity that tracks climate cases and provides legal support, said in an emailed statement.

The Case Against Fossil Fuel Companies

The Department of Justice for Puerto Rico says on its website that despite the companies knowing that their products have caused and will continue to cause severe damage and pollution in Puerto Rico and its natural resources, the companies have distributed, marketed, and promoted their products in Puerto Rico through unfair and deceptive trade practices. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants failed to provide appropriate warnings about the risks associated with the intended use of their products, but instead improperly promoted them, concealing from the public the dangers of which they were aware. They also implemented sophisticated communications and public relations campaigns to deceive the public about the effects of fossil fuel use.

As a result, the people of Puerto Rico have incurred and will incur billions of dollars in costs to clean up the disasters caused by climate change, such as coastal erosion caused by rising sea levels, the formation of increasingly frequent and severe storms, extreme flooding, destruction of coral reefs and mangrove forests, degradation of air and water quality, loss of habitats and species, among other devastating impacts of climate change on the island.

“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 levels. With that knowledge, they took steps to protect their own assets from climate damage and risks, through massive internal investment in research, infrastructure improvements, and plans to exploit new business opportunities in a warming world. However, they failed to truthfully warn Puerto Rican consumers about the consequences of using and burning fossil fuels on the Island, as well as their impact on the environment. It is time for them to mitigate the damage they have caused to Puerto Rico and not for Puerto Ricans to foot the bill,” said the Secretary of Justice.

The lawsuit alleges that, to this day, the defendants continue to deceive the public by falsely and misleadingly promoting their products as climate friendly and positioning themselves as advocates for a low-carbon future, while failing to acknowledge that consumption of their products is a primary driver of climate change. In addition to environmental damages, the lawsuit includes claims for unfair and deceptive acts or practices in trade, product liability, public nuisance, and punitive damages because the defendants’ wrongful acts or omissions were done willfully or with gross disregard for life, safety, and property.

This suit also seeks to compel the defendants to contribute to an equitable fund to mitigate the ongoing damages to Puerto Rico and strengthen public infrastructure against sea level rise and storm damage, restore natural resources, fund local climate resilience measures, and rebuild natural barriers to protect communities from sea level rise and climate-influenced atmospheric phenomena. The lawsuit arose after a study conducted by the Puerto Rico Climate Change Council in 2022. It is based on the Environmental Public Policy Act, the Puerto Rico Antitrust Act, the Civil Code of 2020, and the Code of Civil Procedure.

Good Luck, Puerto Rico

Dozens if not hundreds of similar legal actions have been brought by US states, cities, towns, counties, civic organizations, garden clubs, and book groups over the past 10 years. To date, not one penny in compensation has been paid, which makes these announcements less newsworthy as time goes by. They may provide opportunities to junior attorneys to polish their skills at drafting legal complaints, but otherwise are little more than feelgood exercises with no prospect of success. One of the basic principles of the law is that justice delayed is justice denied. So far, all of these lawsuits total bupkes when it comes to justice being served.

Now, the MAGA lunatics funded by Charles Koch and the Federalist Society are taking steps to protect these climate criminals in perpetuity by asking the US Supreme Court to reach down from on high, rip these cases away from state courts, and make a final and determinative ruling that insulates these companies from any liability for their crimes in perpetuity, just as they did for Donald Trump. Based on the stunning and outrageous rulings by the Supreme Court in its last term that ended in June, the court can be expected to do exactly that. After all, they were placed on the court by oil money specifically to protect these companies from ever having to face justice. They know what is expected of them and will faithfully protect their masters.

If you think the Supremes would not dare to slap down the states that have sued the fossil fuel companies because it would represent a gross intrusion into their power to address harms that directly affect their citizens, think again and go read the decision in Bush V. Gore one more time. The New York Times reported in June that the Supreme Court has asked the Biden administration’s solicitor general for its opinion on the appeals. That may sound like a technicality, but to legal experts, it is a sign that the case has the attention of the justices. The Supreme Court reviews many appeals each year, but only seeks input from the solicitor general in cases it is actively considering taking up.

Whether the cases are heard under federal or state law matters. The cities and states bringing these cases believe they are more likely to win under state law. The oil companies and their lawyers believe they will fare better under federal law. Ted Boutrous, counsel for Chevron, said in a statement that the issues at stake in the Hawaii case were beyond the limits of state law and that “these meritless state and local lawsuits violate the federal constitution and interfere with federal energy policy.”

The Drumbeat For Fossil Fuel Protection Grows Louder

In recent weeks, conservative groups have been running ads and writing opinion pieces urging the Supreme Court to dismiss a similar case brought by the city and county of Honolulu. Some of that pressure campaign was funded by groups linked to Leonard Leo, the conservative activist who has worked for decades to shift the court to the right, according to reports in The Guardian, E&E News, and Rolling Stone. Leo, in turn, is the handpicked stooge of Charles Koch, who years ago chose him to be the point person for the Federalist Society, which has chosen all six of the extreme right-wing judges currently on the court. “Big Oil companies are fighting desperately to avoid trial in lawsuits like Honolulu’s,” Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, told the New York Times.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority, which has largely been deferential to business interests, might be expected to be sympathetic to the oil companies. If the Supreme Court take up the Honolulu case, it may well articulate its views on the proper ways in which states and cities can, and cannot, seek remedies from fossil fuel companies. How the court comes down on this central issue would likely have an impact on the dozens of other similar cases brought by California, Massachusetts, and other cities and states around the country. It would also likely inform the litigation that is inevitably going to be brought against the so-called “Climate Superfund” law recently adopted by the state of Vermont

If you thought the MAGA crazies were all about states’ rights, guess again. First and foremost, they are about protecting the fossil fuel industry and will cheerfully throw blue states under the bus if that’s what it takes to protect their clients. We might wish things were otherwise, but they are not. The US government is now a hostage of the fossil fuel industry. Any rights the people might have will be subordinated to those of Exxon and its fellow climate criminals. As George Carlin tried to tell us, the oil and gas business is a great big club — and you’re not in it. Anyone who thinks the Supreme Court is going to protect states or individual citizens over the fossil fuel giants is delusional. Sorry, that’s just the way it is in America today.

Featured image by Jeremy Buckingham, CC-BY 2.0 license, via Flickr.