County Sues Big Oil Companies

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. -- Several of the biggest oil and gas companies have for decades intentionally deceived Bucks County and the entire nation as they knowingly destabilized the climate with their chief product and consequently caused “catastrophic” damages locally, according to a lawsuit filed by the county.

In the suit filed here in the Court of Common Pleas against “titans of the fossil fuel industry,” the county said “it has suffered and will continue to suffer catastrophic impacts” like “an emerging pattern of increasingly severe, damaging and at times deadly weather events.” Bucks County is the first county in Pennsylvania to file such a lawsuit.

The suit, filed against oil and gas giants BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Shell and API for damages their “big tobacco-style” campaign of deception caused, seeks an unspecified amount. But Amy Fitzpatrick, county solicitor, said, “This suit is our tool to recoup costs and fund public works projects… that will put us in the best possible position” to handle future severe events.

In response to the county’s lawsuit, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., counselor for Chevron Corporation, called such action “meritless.”

“Addressing climate change requires a coordinated international policy response, not meritless local litigation over lawful and essential energy production,” he said, citing a U.S. Appeals Court statement in a prior case that read: “Such a sprawling case is beyond the limits of state law.”

In its lawsuit, the county said the companies have known for decades “with startling precision” their product would destabilize the climate. Rather than disclose the data, it said, the oil and gas companies chose a path of deception.

“These companies have known since at lease the 1950s that their ways of doing business were having calamitous effects on our planet, and rather than change what they were doing or raise an alarm, they lied to all of us,” said county Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo.

(What do you think – valid or ‘meritless.’ Comment and share this.)

Big oil companies deceived public, says lawsuit.Photo byNASAonUnsplash