Our current government has made it very clear that it is deeply in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry and other interests who maintain an anti-science—and more specifically an anti-climate science—bias. On Monday the state of Rhode Island filed a lawsuit at Providence County Superior Court, seeking damages for the costs the state is dealing with trying to build out infrastructure and repair damages caused by rising sea levels. According to reports, 14 oil companies were named in the suit, including heavy hitters like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and BP.
"Big oil knew for decades that greenhouse gas pollution from their operations and their products were having a significant and detrimental impact on the earth's climate," he said. "Instead of working to reduce that harm, these companies chose to conceal the dangers, undermine public support for greenhouse gas regulation and engage in massive campaigns to promote the ever increasing use of their products and ever increasing revenues in their pockets."
This is the first state to sue the oil industry, something that major U.S. cities have already begun to do in recent months. Royal Dutch Shell, also named in the suit, released a statement to Reuters.
Shell, in a statement, said, "lawsuits that masquerade as climate action and impede the collaboration needed for meaningful change" were not the answer to climate change. The other companies did not respond to requests for comment.
Your statement is noted and summarily dismissed in the court of public opinion.