Oregon county seeks to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for extreme heat
Multnomah County in Oregon sues fossil fuel giants for 2021 heat dome deaths, alleging climate crisis contribution. Legal experts see potential case strength in weather modeling advancements. Lawsuit seeks over $1.5 billion.
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In a rare court action, Multnomah County in Oregon is holding fossil fuel companies accountable for extreme temperatures experienced during a heat dome in 2021, resulting in 69 deaths. The county is suing major energy companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron, alleging they contributed to the climate crisis through their emissions. This lawsuit is one of the first to focus on public health costs related to a specific extreme weather event caused by climate change. Legal experts believe that advancements in weather modeling linking greenhouse gases to specific impacts could strengthen the county's case. The lawsuit accuses the companies of negligence, creating a public nuisance, fraud, and deceit by misleading the public about the environmental harm caused by their products. Multnomah County estimates costs exceeding $1.5 billion to address the effects of the heat dome. The case highlights a growing trend of communities seeking accountability from the fossil fuel industry for climate-related damages, signaling a broader movement towards holding corporations responsible for their contributions to climate change.
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2 commentsRegarding the 2021 ‘heat dome’ event - there isn’t convincing science that attributes climate change for that one-off event. The subsequent few years have not had something similar. UW Atmospheric Science professor Cliff Mass wrote about this previously (https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2021/07/was-global-warming-ca...) and demonstrated that it is most likely a rare event caused by a mix of overlapping factors and not causally linked to climate change. Other studies have claimed in their title or abstract that this event was caused by climate change, but when you read the actual paper, you’ll see them admit that they’re making a probabilistic guess and that it is also possible that it is just a rare event. Unfortunately journalists have recycled those headlines without any critical thought around it.
All that said, I do think there is something to the argument that fossil fuel companies (and many other industries) have been deceitful in their marketing and public campaigns as to the impact of their industry. The plastics industry (which is also fossil fuels driven) also comes to mind. But the reality is that the choice to use fossil fuels is also one made individually, by every citizen. It seems odd to me to try to blame the fossil fuel industry when it’s all of us, and when the real problem is just over consumption (regardless of the material in question).
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