Judge holds climate change class in suits against big oil

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge presiding over lawsuits that accuse big oil companies of lying about global warming to protect their profits is turning his courtroom into a classroom in what could be the first hearing to study the science of climate change.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup has asked lawyers for two California cities and five of the world's largest oil and gas companies to come to court Wednesday to present “the best science now available on global warming.” He also wants them to go over the history of climate change research, focusing on ice ages and previous cooling and warming cycles, among other topics.

Legal observers say they have never heard of a court holding a tutorial on climate change, and they are eager to see how the oil companies explain global warming.

Alsup may want to get the companies' views in the court record, said Michael Wara, a lawyer at Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment who studies climate and energy policy.

“That could speak to the lawsuits' claims that these companies were not forthcoming about their internal thinking about climate change,” Wara said.

Alsup is considering two lawsuits, one by San Francisco and the other by neighboring Oakland, that accuse Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Conocophillips, BP and Royal Dutch Shell of long knowing that fossil fuels posed serious risks to the climate, but still promoting them as environmentally responsible. They also allege the companies mounted campaigns to downplay the risks of global warming and discredit research that human activity was to blame.