California Beat Big Tobacco. Can It Now Make Big Oil Pay for Climate Damage?

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

62% : President Donald Trump's Justice Department is likely to support oil companies.
59% : The case is entering full discovery, meaning oil companies could soon need to turn over documents and sit for depositions that could be illuminating about their role in climate change, said Corey Riday-White, a managing attorney at the Center for Climate Integrity, which supports efforts to challenge oil companies in court and sponsored Wiener's legislation.
56% : And climate-warming greenhouse gases are global in scope and emitted by a variety of fossil fuels and other sources, not just gasoline and other products manufactured by the oil industry.
55% : By the early 1980s, the industry knew what was happening, how severe it would be and that fossil fuels were the cause.
55% : He's written about the state's groundbreaking electric vehicle mandate, the oil industry's efforts at capturing carbon from fossil fuels, and how California's climate programs have created a robust cow poop industry.
54% : For decades, climate cases leaned on environmental laws and regulations rather than corporate accountability, Franta said.
51% : According to Jones, U.S. insurers have over half a trillion dollars tied up in fossil fuels.
50% : For years, plaintiffs filing climate cases relied on environmental laws and regulations .
48% : Michael Gerrard, an environmental law expert at Columbia Law School, said the oil industry, unlike the tobacco industry, is actively supported by government policies, from subsidies to infrastructure investments, that promote oil consumption.
47% : " Oil companies say holding them accountable for climate change makes them responsible for an entire economy that depends on their products -- a defense that has found traction in some state courts.
47% : " If successful, these cases could set a precedent similar to the tobacco cases, ultimately holding fossil fuel companies accountable.
46% : "There are a lot of lawsuits pending, but so far, not a single court in the world has held fossil fuel companies financially responsible for greenhouse gas emissions," Gerrard said.
44% : Liability may have to be assigned along a vast supply chain, from refiners to power plants -- even consumers who buy the gasoline, plastics and other products produced from fossil fuels, he said. Related Story: New York to Charge Fossil Fuel Companies for Damage From Climate Change Also, while the connection between climate change and fossil fuels has been clearly documented by scientists, the evidence is less definitive linking fossil fuels to specific extreme weather events such as droughts or wildfires.
39% : If oil companies are held financially responsible for disasters, Gerrard of Columbia Law School warned that equity firms or foreign companies with even less concern for climate issues could swoop in.
38% : State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, introduced a bill in January that would give homeowners and insurance companies new rights to sue oil companies for climate disasters.
38% : Internal documents reveal that by the 1960s, oil companies began predicting fossil fuels could drive catastrophic climate change.
38% : Connecting wildfires to fossil fuel companies is particularly difficult, since fires are often ignited by identifiable parties, such as utilities or arsonists, who can be held directly liable.
37% : Yet, in later decades, as scientists increasingly came to the consensus that burning fossil fuels caused climate change, oil companies ran ads, filed reports and lobbied lawmakers to spread the opposite message -- that climate change wasn't real or wasn't a big deal.
35% : But while insurers are quick to pull out of high-risk areas and raise rates, they've been far less willing to hold oil companies accountable for the disasters their emissions are fueling.
31% : Across the country, states, cities, tribes and environmental groups have filed dozens of lawsuits against oil companies alleging that they misled the public about the dangers of their products.
29% : Plaintiffs argue that oil companies misled the public about climate change, and there's strong evidence they did.
15% : These cases share a core argument: Oil companies knew fossil fuels were driving climate change and lied about it.

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