New York officials endorse prosecuting Big Oil for climate change

Prominent elected officials throughout New York State are endorsing a recent report that argues Big Oil should be held legally accountable for the deadly toll of climate change. The memorandum, which was written by lawyers for the nonprofit advocacy groups Public Citizen and Fair and Just Prosecution, argues that authorities can charge fossil fuel companies with reckless endangerment for knowingly contributing to global warming despite the harm it causes to people.

"Reckless endangerment occurs when someone engages in reckless conduct that risks injuring or killing another person,” Aaron Regunberg, the senior policy counsel with Public Citizen's Climate Program, said in a statement. “That's exactly what these companies and their CEOs have done by knowingly creating the climate crisis that is causing extreme — and extremely dangerous — weather events."

The memorandum was endorsed by more than 50 elected officials in New York State including state senator Kristen Gonzalez, assemblymembers Emily Gallagher and Jessica González-Rojas, New York City councilmembers Sandy Nurse and Carmen De La Rosa, Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso and Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the New York senate judiciary committee chair.

The New York officials could charge Big Oil both for past destructive storms like Hurricanes Ida and Sandy as well as future events like the recent superstorms to hit the American southeast, Hurricanes Helene and Milton. That said, other jurisdictions have also tried to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change. In May, the Vermont legislature passed a law that requires oil companies to compensate members of the public for damages caused by climate change. Vermont residents suffered from climate change-exacerbated events like torrential rains which washed out major cities such as Montpelier.

Public Citizen has previously attempted to lay the foundations for prosecuting Big Oil. Speaking to Salon in June about a model prosecution memorandum for how to charge Big Oil with crimes, Rugenberg said that climate change is "a massive public safety threat." Regarding the series of heatwaves that have devastated parts of the American southwest, Rugenberg said that "not everyone is going to make it when the heat breaks, and dozens of communities have already recorded deaths this summer from extreme heat. Who knows how many hundreds or thousands more are going to lose their lives before the summer ends?"