Puerto Rico files $1B suit against fossil fuel companies

Some of these lawsuits may be aimed not just at winning in court, but at pushing broader changes in policies or public awareness. Even if these cases are challenging to win, they can influence public opinion and policy, encouraging stricter environmental regulations and corporate practices.

Personally I think lawmakers should focus their effort on making stricter legal frameworks for today's world. Use the full force of the law to make companies behave better. It's the only language they understand.

I remember that 20, maybe 25 years ago, the major oil companies were all rebranding themselves as "energy" companies because "we all knew" that we had to be weaned off oil and onto alternative energy sources. Then somehow that effort seems to have petered out.

What happened?

How have we done in the last 40 years dealing with climate change? Peak fossil fuels Real Soon Now

I’d say Carl Sagan nailed it:

https://youtu.be/Wp-WiNXH6hI?si=wJuFlcBbelXVfn6u

I wonder if a lawsuit like this could ultimately indemnify petrochemical companies for a known and finite amount, with the most lasting "benefit" being warning signs on gas pumps and anything else produced using petrochemicals:

  "WARNING: This product is known to the territory of Puerto Rico to cause more and more severe meteorological events."

Then at some later time in the inevitable march to Idiocracy, bright minds at low margin businesses will start tossing some food grade paraffin on everything so they don't have to distinguish between SKUs that need the sign and those that don't.

Does this have legal legs? Also, if “Puerto Rico says it expects to pay billions of dollars in the future to cope with catastrophes made worse by climate change,” why are they only asking for $1bn?

Nevermind the billions of people who (still) drive cars and buy shipped products because there hasn't been a more cost-effective alternative. This entire oil-based economy situation is simple supply and demand and transitioning to clean energy takes a lot of time. I get that their motive comes from oil companies not disclosing the risks to the environment but this is a bit of a stretch and an obvious political stunt.

Fossil fuel companies are valued on their infrastructure, and its shareholders leverage that value (VAL) for gains/loans/financial strengths in other pursuits.

Fortifying VAL necessarily means discrediting any harms by fossil fuels. It necessarily requires winning against renewable energy suppliers. How can these "necessities" be made moot? By getting the shareholders to also invest in renewables, using the loans leveraged from VAL. But then the loaners will be invested in VAL.

Solution is to make sale of fossil companies and infrastructure illegal. Government should buy it out.

Not a lawyer, so no idea if this will get somewhere.

But on the moral side of this, yes, if the operation of oil companies incurs damages to other entities/people, they have to make them whole.

The "Netflix wouldn't exist without fossil fuels" argument is silly. The cost of restoring the environment should be factored in to the cost of producing oil, like any other liability. If that makes everything go up in price, well ... that's the actual cost of that product, consume accordingly.

Only $1B? These days it feels like way to little.

PR has struggled to recover from the effects of hurricane Maria, and I get the logic behind the lawsuit, but she also lies near major fault lines that have caused 2.5-3.5 Richter earthquakes every day for millennia.

If PR were more creative she'd strike a tentative development deal with China to build a huge deep-water port capable of servicing the largest cargo ships AND the largest naval warships then sit back and wait for the U.S. to write a check to fund the strengthening of its relationship with its "strategic partner."

Assuming PR doesn't experience a leadership change shortly thereafter.

Should Puerto Rico pay back the benefits it received from fossil fuels, like increased tourism from airplanes, and for allowing cars and combustible engines on the island? Are they going to get rid of ICE vehicles immediately now?

Are we going to start filing lawsuits against sugar manufacturers for all of the health issues they caused? What about manufacturers of fatty foods? Oh wait, are fatty foods good for you or bad for you? Fatty foods were bad for you in the 80s and 90s but now the science is showing the opposite.

This entire lawsuit is nonsense.

Money grab by an irrelevant, corrupt, and desperate US colony.

Clearly Puerto Rico do not want anything produced with oil or any petroleum products. Maybe these fossil fuel companies should give them their wish and ban their buyers from using their products to transport goods and people there and also in manufacturing of any goods sold there.

That way Puerto Rico could do their part in stopping these emissions. Surely it would not be too big sacrfice?

I think the climate movement is going to fail soon. This mentality of find villans and blame and attack them instead of looking for productive solutions isn't sustainable for a movement. I don't know about the future of the climate but I think unfortunately the climate change issue, like so many pressing issues might be one we have to give up on until we make fundamental changes in our societies

I think this is silly.

Without fossil fuels we’d not have had progress. We’d have wood fires to cook, no AC, lots of missing modern inventions.

Now if fossil fuels were made illegal or were used illegally, sure. But it’s not like the gov outlawed them and now they are seeking damages.

If you want to sue, sue Jane Fonda and her then allies who misled people, corporation and government resulting in 50 lost years of nuclear power progress.