The city of Chicago on Tuesday sued six major oil companies and a major fossil fuel lobby, accusing them of funding and orchestrating a climate change denial campaign that directly affects city residents.
In the lawsuit, the city accuses BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute (API) of misleading the public about the impacts of their products and contributing to the effects of climate change on Chicago. accused of doing so. .
Those impacts include dangerous summer temperatures, an increase in extreme weather events, shoreline erosion, and susceptibility to disasters such as flash flooding in the city’s West Side basements, according to the complaint. As a result, climate change mitigation and response projects in low-income neighborhoods have cost nearly $200 million, according to the city.
The complaint also names API, accusing it of establishing a front group “to promote disinformation and advocacy on climate change from purportedly objective sources.” The accusation echoes comments ExxonMobil lobbyist Keith McCoy made to activists in 2021, which the company was secretly recorded as “aggressive.” [fought] It goes against some of the science on climate.” Exxon denied responsibility for McCoy’s comments and said he did not represent the company’s views.
“There is no justice without accountability,” Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) said in a statement Tuesday. “From the unprecedented poor air quality we experienced last summer to the flooded basements experienced by West Side residents, the impacts of this crisis are severe, and so are the costs of surviving it. That’s why we are holding these defendants accountable.”
Although many states and local governments have filed similar lawsuits in recent years, Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, is one of the largest individual local governments to file suit. In 2021, then-New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s (Democratic) administration sued ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, and API.
The Hill has reached out to the six companies and API for comment.
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