While we should be cooperating on climate change, partisan “lawfare” is using America’s courts to get around federal policymakers. The problem is escalating, with California filing suit against major oil and gas producers over climate change, seeking billions for weather related natural disasters like wildfires and droughts. This isn’t the right path.
California Democrats like Governor Gavin Newsom and State attorney General Rob Bonta say they’re taking on “Big Oil”, what’s really big are the holes in California’s case. These officials are alleging energy producers misled the public about risk, but the public has long been aware of climate change and the potential connection with energy use and production. Energy producers deceived no one, leaving state attorneys with no legal claim that holds any water.
The lawsuit claims leaders were unaware of the link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, even as many offered legislation and policy built explicitly on such a link. Supposedly, “Big Oil” used persuasive magic to keep state officials ignorant about the climate effects of fossil fuels, only to have the truth exposed in 2023. Simply put, the state’s story is absurd.
Related: Rob Bonta’s climate strategy was rejected in the courts in 2007
Ironically, California’s green politics cast a pall over its own climate change lawsuit. That’s because Democratic officials in the state have attacked fossil fuels for decades, and have continually cited and leveraged the 75-years-worth of copious evidence documenting the effects of fossil fuels on climate. California wasn’t operating under a veil of ignorance regarding fossil fuels, nor did energy producers mislead them. After all, there have been more than 72,500 articles on climate change or global warming since 2000 by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times alone.
The Office of Management and Budget has allocated more than $154 billion since 1993 for climate change work. A 1990 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) showed rising greenhouse gas concentrations. California even cited climate change knowledge from the 1970s in a 2012 California Environmental Quality Act statute.
Related: Doomed climate lawsuits are a waste of time and money
Ignoring all that, California officials chose to warp consumer protection laws for their green agenda. These safeguards weren’t meant to be politicized to advance agendas, but states and municipalities are using them to allege oil and gas producers deceived consumers about fossil fuels and climate. Such claims are patently bogus.
Hijacking courts on climate change is inappropriate, upsetting constitutionally enshrined principles of American jurisprudence. Such lawsuits create uncertainty in the rule of law, raise due process concerns, and blur the line between public and private civil action by letting plaintiffs’ firms represent states in public enforcement actions. We should never allow trial lawyers to puppeteer state resources for financial gain.
Ironically, the energy producers being targeted are leading the way on climate solutions, pouring billions into research and technology. They also helped the U.S. lead the way in reducing energy-related CO2 emissions since the EIA has consistently found that the transition from coal to natural gas for power generation is a leading contributor for lowering carbon emissions in the U.S. Today, companies like Chevron are investing $8 billion in climate solutions like hydrogen and carbon capture while BP is cultivating New York City’s emerging offshore wind ecosystem. Yet, California leaders have chosen litigation over partnership.
Instead of blaming energy producers for wildfires, California officials should look in the mirror, examining their abysmal mismanagement of natural resources and failing infrastructure. California has wasted opportunities to expand its water infrastructure, manage its forests more wisely, and take other practical steps to keep mother nature at bay. Now, faced with difficult realities they helped create, California hopes it can go to court and make big companies foot the bill.
So-called “Big Oil” isn’t to blame for California’s troubles. Rather, it’s their own big failures, big oversights, and big penchant for chasing headlines instead of solutions. With their own green policies and missteps having left the Golden State scorched and desiccated, they’re now hoping to burn someone else. We shouldn’t let them.
Christopher Moritz served as a Senior Advisor in the Commerce Department under the Trump Administration and is now a lawyer. He is from Santa Monica.
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