Inside Track
Maine Sues Oil Companies for Climate Change
On November 26, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey, a Democrat, announced that the Pine Tree State is filing suit against several oil giants, alleging that they willingly hid the role of fossil fuels in climate change and put profits over the environment for more than half a century. The defendants are BP, Chevron, Exxon, Shell, Sunoco, and the American Petroleum Institute.
As a report in the November 27 New York Times explains, the suit alleges that Maine is the victim of the careless disregard that the oil companies showed when they continued to sell fossil fuels even though they knew that continued use of such fuels risked causing extreme weather effects, which adversely affected the state. Claimed Frey, “For over half a century, these companies chose to fuel profits instead of following their science to prevent what are now likely irreversible, catastrophic climate effects. In so doing, they burdened the State and our citizens with the consequences of their greed and deception.”
Specifically, the suit avers that the oil companies ran afoul of state law due to their negligence, nuisance, trespass, unfair trade practices, and failure to warn about the consequences of fossil fuel use.
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