Santa Cruz squares off with Big Oil

Fossil fuel industry hid product dangers, suit says

The city and county of Santa Cruz have joined a growing number of communities suing oil companies over climate change, alleging a plot in which the fossil fuel industry concealed the dangers of its products from consumers, much like the tobacco industry did decades ago.

The two lawsuits, filed Wednesday, blame the use and combustion of oil, gas and coal for accelerating sea-level rise and threatening hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to the famously serene and much visited Santa Cruz County coast.

While the challenge is similar to other suits recently filed by waterfront communities in California, including San Francisco, the new cases in Santa Cruz County Superior Court go a step further. They seek to recoup not only the costs of rising seas but of other climate-related events, including big storms, wildfires and drought.

“We believe enough is enough,” said Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend, who represents the seaside city of Capitola as well as several

miles of unincorporated shoreline along Monterey Bay.

“These types of weather events are going to become more common and we can expect more of the fires we saw in Wine Country and Southern California,” Friend said. “It is directly related to fossil fuel-based climate change.”

The tactic of suing oil companies over climate change has gained momentum over the past year in California, as regulation of the fossil fuel industry has eased under President Trump and scientists more precisely link the fallout of global warming to fossil fuels.

Though past lawsuits of this kind have had limited success, the newer cases have yet to be taken up by the courts.

Industry leaders criticize the mounting legal drive as counterproductive.

“Chevron welcomes serious attempts to address the issue of climate change, but these suits do not do that,” company spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie told The Chronicle in September. “Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global issue that requires global engagement and action.”

Chevron, among the 29 companies named in the latest lawsuits, is working to reduce its climate footprint. Other defendants include ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips.

The suits allege that the multinational corporations knew nearly 50 years ago that their fossil fuel products were contributing to global warming, yet hid the threats and worked to undermine support for regulating their activities.

The plaintiffs draw comparisons to Big Tobacco’s efforts to cover up the health risks of cigarettes.

Like the other recent challenges to the oil industry, the Santa Cruz County lawsuits argue the companies constitute a public nuisance.

An estimated 930 buildings will be inundated with water in the city and county under a projection of four inches of sea-level rise by 2030, according to the lawsuit. The region is also likely to face increasing costs from wildfires, water shortages and storms, the suit says.

Legal scholars are paying close attention to the climate battles. While some experts say the suits contain solid research on the effects of fossil fuels on global warming, as well as more information on what executives knew about those effects, convincing a judge or jury of a specific connection between an oil company’s practices and local damages may be tough.

The communities suing the firms must also show why their complaints aren’t better addressed through regulation, rather than in the courts.