A recent barrage of lawsuits is targeting fuel and food companies for their alleged contribution to global warming.
Their goal is to set national policy on essential products like food and fuel without having to go through the process of public debate and consensus that is necessary to passing laws.
“In the political process where we decide these things, there’s a lot of trade offs with climate change policy, and it affects everyone,” Robert Stilson, research specialist at Capital Research and author of the Feb. 8 report, told The Epoch Times.
“I think they see this as a way to get around that legislative process,” he said.
Critics of the effort say, if it succeeds, it could result in an enormous wealth transfer, with consumers paying higher prices for fuel and food to fund settlements.
While dozens of lawsuits have been lodged against energy companies over the past year, targeting food companies is a new development.
On Feb. 28, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued JBS USA Food Company, a U.S. subsidiary of the Brazil-based JBS Group, the world’s largest meat processor.
Analogous to the tobacco suits, these climate lawsuits are based on charges of corporate deceit.
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(Left) New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks in New York City on Oct. 2, 2023. (Right) A JBS Processing Plant stands dormant after a ransomeware attack halted operations, in Greeley, Colo., on June 1, 2021. (John Lamparski/AFP via Getty Images, Chet Strange/Getty Images)
‘Find One Judge in One State’
On Feb. 20, the city of Chicago followed that example and sued BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute for “deceiving Chicago consumers about the climate dangers associated with their products.”In September 2023, California filed climate lawsuits against Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron, also charging that they misled the public about climate change and their contribution to it.
“Wildfires wiping out entire communities, toxic smoke clogging our air, deadly heat waves, record-breaking droughts parching our wells.”
Whether the majority of these cases stand on their merits could prove to be beside the point.
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(Top) A lone lodgepole pine stands in an area logged after the mountain pine beetle killed most of the trees in the stand in Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest near Deer Lodge, Mont., on Sept. 12, 2019. (Bottom) The Phillips 66 Los Angeles Refinery Wilmington Plant stands beyond a residential street, in Wilmington, Calif., on Nov. 28, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“Once you get to that point—where you’re past preliminary motions and you’re heading toward discovery and trial—it’s a very different balance of power between the litigants,” the report states. “The plaintiffs can start asking for documents and can start constructing a narrative about what the industry knew and how it acted in the face of that knowledge.”
Also in litigants’ favor is the fact that courts have generally accepted that global warming is occurring and is caused by human activity.
Oil companies have attempted to defend themselves by appealing to federal judges, arguing that the issue should be decided according to federal law rather than in a multitude of local jurisdictions.
The Money Chain
Alongside the rise of what has been called “lawfare” and “lawsuit litigation” has come the increasing influence of charity groups and tax-exempt donations in American politics.“This is further evidence that the green movement is no longer about protecting the environment.”
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A person finishes pumping gas at a Shell gas station in Houston, Texas, on April 1, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The Capital Research report states that payments to Sher Edling appear to have been routed through one of the New Venture Fund’s numerous fiscally-sponsored projects, the Collective Action Fund for Accountability, Resilience, and Adaptation, whose self-stated purpose is to “enable cities, counties, and states hard hit by climate change to file high-impact climate damage and deception lawsuits represented by expert counsel.”
If the effort is successful, prices would increase and add to the inflation that has reduced the living standards of many Americans over the past three years.
“Think about how important oil and gas resources are to humanity’s entire standard of living,” Mr. Stilson said. “Policy that would impact them, in any direction, is going to necessarily affect every person in our society, and, it should be pointed out, the constituents of these very governments that are filing these lawsuits.”
The Epoch Times contacted Sher Edling for comment but didn’t receive a reply.