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PRESS RELEASE
Baltimore Takes On Fossil Fuel Companies to Protect Taxpayers from the Costs and Consequences of Climate Change
Oil & Gas Companies Challenged for Knowingly Jeopardizing Families, Businesses, and Infrastructure in the East Coast's 5th Largest City
BALTIMORE, MD. — The East Coast’s 5th
largest city today
joined a growing number of communities that are trying to hold fossil fuel
companies accountable for knowingly contributing to what one of the industry’s own
experts described as the “potentially catastrophic” consequences of climate
change. The lawsuit was filed in state Circuit Court in Baltimore City.
The
City, with 60 miles of waterfront and one of the most important ports on the
East Coast, faces growing costs to protect its residents, businesses and
infrastructure from rising seas and other climate change-related damages.
“These
oil and gas companies knew for decades that their products would harm
communities like ours, and we’re going to hold them accountable,” Baltimore City Solicitor Andre M. Davis said. “Baltimore’s residents, workers, and businesses
shouldn’t have to pay for the damage knowingly caused by these companies.”
Solicitor
Davis, who took the reins of the city’s law office in September 2017, spent
more than three decades as a judge in Baltimore’s Circuit Court, the U.S. District
Court, and on the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. He also served as a
federal prosecutor and as a housing manager for the city.
Baltimore’s
lawsuit is the 13th to be filed taking on some of the largest and
most powerful corporations in the world. The complaint, filed today on behalf
of the City of Baltimore, seeks to hold accountable 26 oil
and gas companies for damages associated with sea level rise and changes to the
hydrologic cycle that include more frequent and severe heat waves, drought, and
extreme precipitation events, all of which are caused by the companies’
products.
“Baltimore
is a real American melting pot - an economically and culturally diverse coastal
city with a proud heritage and promising future,” noted Mayor Catherine E. Pugh. “But
we’re now on the front lines of climate change because melting ice caps, more
frequent heat waves, extreme storms, and
other climate consequences caused by fossil fuel companies are threatening our
city and imposing real costs on our taxpayers. I fully support the Solicitor’s
effort to protect Baltimore, our economy, and our people by holding these
companies accountable,” Mayor Pugh added.
According
to the complaint:
Baltimore is
particularly vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise because of its
substantial and densely developed coastline and substantial low-lying areas. The port and waterfront
are extremely important assets to the City, providing an abundance of jobs as
well as some of the City’s strongest property tax base. Baltimore’s Inner Harbor
is a prominent tourist destination attracting more than 20 million visitors
each year. Sea level rise will present short- and long-term challenges to the
Inner Harbor, along with other waterfront communities.
Just two
years ago, the Baltimore region was hit with a 1,000-year storm that brought
torrential rains and flash floods. Two months ago, the area was hit with
another 1,000-year storm. Recent reports from the American Meteorological
Society and others confirm that those kinds of serious climate-related changes
result from warming of the planet caused by increases in greenhouse gases from
fossil fuels.
Moreover,
the latest science shows a clear connection between the oil and gas produced by
fossil fuel companies and rising temperatures and sea levels, along with more frequent
and severe heat waves, droughts, and extreme precipitation events.
“For
50 years, these companies have known their products would cause rising seas and
the other climate change-related problems facing Baltimore today,” said
Solicitor Davis. “They could have warned us. They could have taken steps to
minimize or avoid the damage. In fact, they had a responsibility to do both,
but they didn’t, and that’s why we are taking them to court.”
According
to the complaint:
Defendants have known for nearly 50 years that
greenhouse gas pollution from their fossil fuel products has a significant
impact on the Earth’s climate and sea levels. Defendants’ awareness of the
negative implications of their actions corresponds almost exactly with the
Great Acceleration, and with skyrocketing greenhouse gas emissions. With that
knowledge, Defendants took steps to protect their own assets from these threats
through immense internal investment in research, infrastructure improvements, and
plans to exploit new opportunities in a warming world.
Instead
of working to reduce the use and combustion of fossil fuel products, lower the
rate of greenhouse gas emissions, minimize the damage associated with continued
high use and combustion of such products, and ease the transition to a lower
carbon economy, Defendants concealed the dangers, sought to undermine public
support for greenhouse gas regulation, and engaged in massive campaigns to
promote the ever-increasing use of their products at ever greater volumes.
“For
the past three decades, the fossil fuel industry has spent billions of dollars
to deceive, delay, distract, and attack those who try to hold them accountable
for their role in causing climate change,” said Mayor Pugh. “We expect more of
the same from them here, but we will not be deterred from our responsibility to
protect Baltimore and those of us who call it home.”
The
City of Baltimore is represented by its Solicitor and assisted by outside
counsel from Sher Edling LLP.
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