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For Immediate Release
September, 14 2020, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Mike Meno,,mike@climateintegrity.org
HARTFORD, Connecticut
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong today filed a state lawsuit against ExxonMobil for "an ongoing, systematic campaign of lies and deception" about the company's role in causing climate change--the latest in a rapidly growing wave of lawsuits from now 23 states and municipalities seeking to hold the oil giant and other fossil fuel companies accountable for lying and concealing critical information about their role in creating the climate crisis.
Just this month, Hoboken, New Jersey; Charleston, South Carolina, and the State of Delaware filed similar lawsuits. Connecticut is now the fifth state to sue Exxon for climate change fraud and/or damages since 2017 after Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Delaware.
Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement:
"This avalanche of climate litigation is Exxon's worst nightmare. The public increasingly understands Big Oil's role in causing and lying about the climate crisis, and states and localities are stepping up like never before to demand justice and hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for their lies and deception.
"North, South, East, and West, communities across the country are struggling to protect themselves in the face of the climate crisis. These lawsuits are about surviving climate change, not solving it. They are an essential step toward holding polluters accountable for decades of propaganda and disinformation that stalled climate action and caused untold destruction.
"Now the only question is, who will sue Big Oil next?"
Background on Climate Litigation:
Since 2017, 23 communities, including the states of Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Delaware, and now Connecticut; the District of Columbia, and more than a dozen city and county governments in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and Washington have brought lawsuits under different claims to recover billions of dollars in damages caused by the oil and gas industry's deception about climate change. Collectively, these communities represent more than 10 percent of the U.S. population. Learn about those other cases here.
This year, three separate federal appeals courts ruled that cases in California, Colorado, and Maryland should proceed in state court.
Former Vice President Joe Biden has pledged that if elected president he would order his Department of Justice to "strategically support ongoing plaintiff-driven climate litigation against polluters."
The Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) helps cities and states across the country hold corporate polluters accountable for the massive impacts of climate change.
(919) 307-6637LATEST NEWS
Citing Threat of 'Authoritarian Regime,' Judge Orders ICE to Stop Tear-Gassing Protesters in Oregon
In "a well-functioning constitutional democratic republic," said US District Judge Michael Simon, "free speech, courageous newsgathering, and nonviolent protest are all permitted, respected, and even celebrated."
Feb 04, 2026
Warning that President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigrant communities, protesters who speak out for civil and human rights, and journalists who are reporting on the president's mass deportation campaign has placed the nation at a "crossroads," a US judge on Tuesday temporarily barred federal agents from launching tear gas, projectiles, and other chemicals at demonstrators in Portland, Oregon.
US District Judge Michael Simon in the District of Oregon ruled that for at least the next 14 days—a period that could be extended—federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security or other agencies can no longer use chemical or projectile munitions like tear gas or pepper balls unless the specific target poses an imminent threat of physical harm to a law enforcement officer or someone else.
Officers are also prohibited from firing any munition at a person's head, neck, or torso except in cases where deadly force would be justified, and from using a less lethal munition if doing so would endanger someone who doesn't pose an imminent threat.
Simon emphasized that he arrived at the ruling in order to preserve the United States' status as "a well-functioning constitutional democratic republic."
In such a country, wrote Simon, free speech, courageous newsgathering, and nonviolent protest are all permitted, respected, and even celebrated."
"In an authoritarian regime, that is not the case," he continued. "Our nation is now at a crossroads. We have been here before and have previously returned to the right path, notwithstanding an occasional detour. In helping our nation find its constitutional compass, an impartial and independent judiciary operating under the rule of law has a responsibility that it may not shirk."
The ruling pertains to the vicinity of the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Building, which has been at the center of protests against the agency's arrests and detention of immigrants in the Portland area.
Simon handed down the ruling days after thousands of residents assembled near the building to speak out against Trump's anti-immigration agenda, in which a majority of the people who have been detained in recent months have had no criminal records despite the president's claims that ICE is targeting the "worst of the worst" violent offenders. DHS agents have shot at least 13 people since September, and have killed two—Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. An off-duty ICE agent also fatally shot Keith Porter in Los Angeles.
The protest on Saturday in Portland was nonviolent and family-friendly, with children and senior citizens among those who gathered to speak out against the killings, deportations, and detentions.
But ICE agents nonetheless deployed tear gas at the crowd. They did so again the next day when hundreds of protesters rallied at City Hall and marched to the ICE Building. DHS claimed the protesters “threw objects at law enforcement and rocks at cameras." lreported that it had not verified those claims.
This is indefensible.
During an Alex Pretti memorial bike ride in SW Portland, federal agents deployed tear gas as children were present.
Video shows a child believed to be around 7 years old fleeing the gas.
This is what “law enforcement” looks like now.
U.S. Immigration and… pic.twitter.com/PvJuyUSn1w
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) February 1, 2026
The ACLU, which filed a legal complaint to the judge Sunday night on behalf of protesters who had been affected by ICE's use of tear gas, said Tuesday that "not only are DHS’s extreme actions violating protesters’ First Amendment rights, but they also pose an imminent risk that officers will seriously maim or kill someone, as they have done repeatedly within the last few weeks in other parts of the country."
Kelly Simon, the legal director for ACLU of Oregon, said that "it has been inspiring to see Oregonians rising together with love, nonviolence, and creativity to oppose the Trump administration’s cruelty."
"The Department of Homeland Security’s pattern of violently retaliating against protesters and documenters flies in the face of any notion of order, safety, or freedom," she said. "This ruling affirms that, in Oregon, we still love our neighbors and believe in the power of our constitutional freedoms, including the freedoms of assembly, speech, and the press, to build a better future for all of us."
In its filing, the ACLU described several alleged acts of violence and excessive force by federal agents against peaceful protesters and journalists, including the use of a chemical impact munition against an 84-year-old woman who was "peacefully holding a sign on a public street" when she was hit in the head. She walked home "soaked in blood" and was later diagnosed with a concussion at an emergency department.
A freelance journalist was also allegedly shot in the groin with projectile munitions and suffered bruises, and on another occasion was maced in the face by an officer.
Jack Dickinson, a protester who has been dubbed the Portland Chicken for the chicken costume he's worn at anti-ICE demonstrations, said he was "grateful that Judge Simon agreed that cruelty is not an appropriate response to dissent."
"Since June, the Trump regime has subjected people in Portland to chemical weapons and violence because they are offended by our words," said Dickinson. "This administration should hear our grievances and halt their barbaric treatment of our communities. Until then, I hope Portland will continue to show up and exercise our First Amendment rights. Our voices are needed most in times like now."
Federal agents' use of tear gas and other chemicals also prompted a separate lawsuit recently, with a property management company joining a group of residents in an apartment building about 100 feet from the ICE building suing DHS because tear gas has clouded their homes for months—forcing some to sleep wearing gas masks.
One resident said she was also struck by rubber bullets that left her with welts and bruises.
Lawsuits challenging federal agents' deployment of chemicals and munitions have also been filed in Minnesota and Chicago.
An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for March 2 in Simon's courtroom regarding the question of whether the court should grant a preliminary injunction, further limiting the use of tear gas and other weapons against protesters and journalists.
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Escalating Threats to Midterm Elections, Bannon Says Trump Will ‘Have ICE Surround the Polls’
"This is a red alert moment," said Sen. Ed Markey. "We have to start working to protect polling places from Trump's paramilitary ICE goons before it's too late."
Feb 04, 2026
Days after President Donald Trump suggested that Republicans should “nationalize the voting” in Democratic districts, his former White House adviser telegraphed another way Trump may seek to prevent a free and fair election later this year: illegally flooding polling places with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
"You're damn right we're gonna have ICE surround the polls come November," Bannon said on his War Room podcast on Tuesday.
"We're not gonna sit here and allow you to steal the country again," he continued. "And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen."
What Bannon proposed would be in direct violation of state and federal law. As Sean Morales-Doyle, the director of the Brennan Center’s voting rights and elections program, explained back in October:
The law is crystal clear: It is illegal to deploy federal troops or armed federal law enforcement to any polling place. In fact, it is a federal crime for anyone in the US military to interfere in elections in any way. More specifically, it is a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, to deploy federal “troops or armed men” to any location where voting is taking place or elections are being held, unless “such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.” ...
It is also a federal crime for anyone, including federal agents, to intimidate voters. Anyone who does so may be liable for a number of different federal criminal offenses.
While Trump has not explicitly said ICE should be deployed in 2026, he has said he regrets not deploying the National Guard to seize voting machines during the 2020 election, which he attempted to overturn with a litany of disproven fraud allegations.
He has since followed through somewhat on this desire, sending the FBI to seize 2020 election materials from a voting hub in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of what the FBI said was an "investigation" into election fraud, which he said caused him to lose the election to former President Joe Biden.
It's unclear how, if at all, ICE may figure into his goal, stated earlier this week, to have Republicans "take control of the voting in at least 15 places," which would violate the constitutional right for states and localities to administer their own elections.
He has, however, used ICE to demand that Minnesota—a key swing state in 2026—turn over its voter rolls to the federal government in exchange for a withdrawal of agents who have killed three US citizens over the past month and unleashed a wave of violence and civil rights violations.
Expressing fear that Republicans will be trounced in November’s midterm elections—which polls currently indicate is likely—Trump has also recently suggested on multiple occasions that the elections should simply be “canceled” outright.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) said all of this adds up to a frightening picture.
"Donald Trump can't win the 2026 election, so he's putting in place a plan to steal it," he said in a video posted to social media. "That is not hyperbole. That is not conspiracy. He is literally doing it, and telling you he's going to do it every single day."
Murphy said, “He wants the federal government, meaning Donald Trump’s MAGA loyalists, to run elections in places like Georgia and Minnesota, and probably Pennsylvania and Texas and Maine—anywhere that there’s a race that might determine control of the House or the Senate.”
Trump's threats come amid negotiations in Congress over whether to provide additional funding to ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Democrats have said they will not provide the necessary votes to fund DHS unless certain reforms are put in place to rein in the agency's abuses—such as requiring agents to wear body cameras, carry identification, and obtain judicial warrants before making arrests.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), who voted against the bill Tuesday to extend DHS funding for two weeks while negotiations continue, has said Democrats must also pursue guarantees that ICE will not be used to interfere with elections.
"We must not agree to another dollar for ICE until we add my amendment blocking the federal government from seizing voter rolls, ballots, or voting machines," he said on Tuesday. "If the House GOP is serious about election integrity, they will agree that elections must remain run by states, not rigged by a wannabe dictator."
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) agreed: "This is a red alert moment... We have to start working to protect polling places from Trump's paramilitary ICE goons before it's too late."
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'This Is a Wakeup Call': Critics Disgusted as Billionaire Bezos Guts Washington Post
"Oligarchs are not the benevolent saviors media have long depicted them to be."
Feb 04, 2026
The Washington Post announced massive cuts to its newsroom staff on Wednesday, unleashing a wave of disgust directed toward its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
As reported by Semafor reporter Maxwell Tani, Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray told staffers at the paper that it would be closing its sports department "in its current form," and would also be "killing its book section, suspending its Post Reports podcast, restructuring its metro section, and shrinking its international footprint."
With hundreds of journalists expected to lose their jobs, Murray told Post employees that the cuts were needed to help the paper "become more essential to people's lives" in "what is becoming a more crowded, competitive and complicated media landscape, and after some years when, candidly, the Post has had struggles to do that."
Many critics, however, scoffed at claims that cuts at the paper were needed to make it profitable, suggesting the real motivation came from Bezos' desire to take an ax to the US free press.
Brian Phillips, senior writer at The Ringer, rejected the notion that one of the richest men in the world couldn't afford to keep what was once a revered newspaper fully staffed.
"Bezos isn't destroying the Washington Post because it isn't profitable," he wrote in a social media post. "He's destroying the Washington Post because he's calculated that a robust free press threatens the ability of his class to warp society around their interests."
Phillips also implored other journalists to not report on the Post layoffs as "a straightforward business story," but rather "a story about coercive social transformation being imposed by people so rich they've ceased to see the rest of us as legitimate stakeholders in our own lives."
David Sirota, founder of The Lever, said the layoffs should end journalists' fantasies that billionaire owners will rescue journalism in an era of mass consolidation by corporate conglomerates, slashed newsroom budgets, and wave after wave of layoffs.
"The media world’s stunned/shocked reaction to the awful WaPo layoffs shows that even now, so many in journalism still can’t believe billionaires aren’t going to rescue them," he wrote. "This is a wake up call: Oligarchs are not the benevolent saviors media have long depicted them to be."
Adam Serwer of the Atlantic also raised concerns about the power of wealthy oligarchs to buy and destroy historic media institutions.
"I personally do not think some rich man should be able to buy an institution like this like a toy and then break it when he doesn’t want to play with it anymore," he wrote. "Bezos fucked the paper and instead of fixing it he’s destroying it despite the fact that he could spend the money to make things right without even noticing its absence."
Jonathan Cohn, political director for Progressive Mass, noted that the Post isn't the only media organization that's being gutted by a billionaire owner, referencing billionaire Larry Ellison, a major donor to President Donald Trump, who recently acquired CBS News alongside other media properties.
"What we are seeing with WaPo and with CBS News is that the mega-rich see real financial value for themselves in destroying journalism," he wrote. "Let that sink in."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), in a post written before the Post layoffs were announced, drew attention to billionaire control over not just traditional media, but social media as well.
"When we talk about authoritarianism, it’s not just Donald Trump," wrote Sanders. "[Elon] Musk owns X. Bezos owns Twitch. [Mark] Zuckerberg owns Instagram and Facebook. Larry Ellison controls TikTok. Billionaires increasingly control what we see, hear and read."
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