Saturday, October 1, 2016

More Legal Problems for the Fossil Fuel Industry

A lawsuit has been filed against ExxonMobil in federal court in Massachusetts. The lawsuit deals with a facility owned by ExxonMobil that is vulnerable to raising sea levels and which Exxon failed to properly account for when building the facility. This is significant. In other legal proceedings, Exxon has used the defense that it knew about climate change and has never denied it. Now, it is in the situation where it failed to address the dangers from climate change, the same climate change it claims it always knew about and never denied, and this inaction has put coastal areas at risk. By the way, this inaction also put the assets of shareholders at risk. The SEC might be interested in that.

So, tell us Exxon. Which is it? It didn't know about climate change and that's why it didn't take proper actions to safeguard its facilities? Or, it knew all along and didn't care.

Oh, by the way, there are lots more facilities that are at risk and many more companies that could be held liable. It's getting interesting. Wouldn't it be poetic justice if Exxon and other fossil fuel companies end up having to spend billions of dollars fixing facilities because they refused to address climate change?

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