United States Voters Support Climate Litigation Against Big Oil

(AmericanProsperity.com) – United States communities are charging Bil Oil for their deceptive practices regarding the climate crisis. Polling was recently released by the Guardian which showed that the majority of U.S. voters support the litigation, and half of them said that they would support even more aggressive legal strategies.

There are forty existing lawsuits against major oil companies that cities and states have filed, but they are based on civil charges like tort law and racketeering protections. However, last year the non-profit organization Public Citizen proposed a more serious crime, where they looked to file charges of homicide against the companies.

Allegedly, Big Oil knew about the pollution from the use of fossil fuels, which could cause lethal consequences but they still fought to delay climate action. Because they decided to fight against climate action, this could be considered reckless or negligent homicide.

The top US fossil fuel lobby group, the American Petroleum Institute, was asked about the legal theory. They said, “The industry has achieved its goal of providing affordable, reliable American energy to US consumers while substantially reducing emissions and our environmental footprint”.

Several district attorneys were interested in the idea, while others were skeptical of the legal charges. This is what prompted them to poll American voters and see what their opinion was on the situation and the legal action that could be taken.

The first question was if “fossil fuel companies should be held legally accountable for their contributions to climate change.” In response, over sixty percent of voters said yes, which showed support for the civil lawsuits against the oil companies.

Grace Adcox, Fossil Free Media’s senior climate strategist at Data for Progress, said, “Voters strongly want to see companies held accountable for their harmful actions.”

The poll said, “Knowing what you do now, do you support or oppose criminal charges being filed against oil and gas companies to hold them accountable for deaths caused by their contributions to climate change?” Almost fifty percent of people said that they would “strongly or somewhat” support the effort.