(PatriotNewsDaily.com) – Chicago has filed a lawsuit against the primary fossil fuel lobbying group and six major oil companies claiming that they had funded a campaign to deny climate change regardless of the effects that it was having on the residents in the city.
The lawsuit names Shell, Phillips 66, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, BP as well as the American Petroleum Institute (API) for having been misleading the U.S. public on how their products were affecting climate change in the city of Chicago. They add that these effects include summer temperatures that reach unsafe levels, shoreline erosion which could lead to flash flooding, and an overall increase in the number of extreme weather phenomena. The city argued that as a result, the climate mitigation response had ended up costing low-income communities close to $200 million.
The complaint specifically refers to the API and accuses it of having created front groups that are focused on pushing forward disinformation that has come from objective sources. These accusations are similar to the ones that Keith McCoy, an ExxonMobil lobbyist had used in 2021 against an activist while it was recorded that the company had been fighting against certain science that related to the climate.
Exxon has not taken responsibility for the comments made by the lobbyist and they have argued that it is not a representation of the company’s views.
On Tuesday in a statement, Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) argued that without accountability it was not possible to have any justice. He then pointed out that last summer there had been unprecedented poor air quality, as well as flooding in basements on the West Side. He continued by noting that the climate crisis was costing everyone which is why they were looking to hold the defendants in the suit accountable.
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