SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
"Gas utilities have been significant players in the historic and ongoing deception campaigns to mislead the public about the dangers of fossil fuels."
Multnomah County in Oregon on Monday added NW Natural to the list of defendants in its climate deception lawsuit, making the company the first-ever gas utility to face a climate lawsuit.
The county, which encompasses Portland, sued an array of fossil fuel interests last year for deceiving the public about the dangers of their products. It's one of dozens of climate lawsuits municipalities and states around the United States have filed in recent years in a bid to hold the Big Oil accountable. None have yet reached a trial.
The Multnomah County lawsuit is unique in that it seeks damages for a specific extreme weather event: the heat dome that covered Portland in 2021, killing at least 69. The county seeks $50 million in damages for the heat dome, $1.5 billion for future damages, and $50 billion for climate adaptation.
"It is our purpose to hold accountable all of the companies that we allege engaged in wrongdoing associated with carbon pollution that has so negatively affected climate," Jeffrey Simon, co-lead counsel for Multnomah County, toldOPB following the revision to the list of defendants.
Notorious greenwasher and climate villain NW Natural is the first US gas utility to be sued in a climate accountability lawsuit.
The company accounts for 9% of Oregon's greenhouse gas emissions.
Thank you to @multco for holding polluters accountable. https://t.co/qWgmXQKWW0
— Breach Collective (@breachcollectiv) October 8, 2024
The lawsuit now names 24 defendants, 13 of which are oil and gas companies. The county also on Monday added the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine to the list.
A federal judge ruled in June that the case could proceed in Oregon state court—a loss for Big Oil, which had sought to move it to federal court.
Experts said the move to include NW Natural in the case could be the start of a movement to hold utilities accountable for their role in the fossil fuel economy and for deceiving the public about natural gas.
"Gas utilities have been significant players in the historic and ongoing deception campaigns to mislead the public about the dangers of fossil fuels," Alyssa Johl, general counsel at the Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement. "NW Natural is now the first to be named as a defendant in a climate deception lawsuit, but it likely won't be the last."
"Gas utilities have known for decades that their products fuel the climate crisis, yet they continue to deceptively market methane gas as a climate solution," she added.
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Multnomah County in Oregon on Monday added NW Natural to the list of defendants in its climate deception lawsuit, making the company the first-ever gas utility to face a climate lawsuit.
The county, which encompasses Portland, sued an array of fossil fuel interests last year for deceiving the public about the dangers of their products. It's one of dozens of climate lawsuits municipalities and states around the United States have filed in recent years in a bid to hold the Big Oil accountable. None have yet reached a trial.
The Multnomah County lawsuit is unique in that it seeks damages for a specific extreme weather event: the heat dome that covered Portland in 2021, killing at least 69. The county seeks $50 million in damages for the heat dome, $1.5 billion for future damages, and $50 billion for climate adaptation.
"It is our purpose to hold accountable all of the companies that we allege engaged in wrongdoing associated with carbon pollution that has so negatively affected climate," Jeffrey Simon, co-lead counsel for Multnomah County, toldOPB following the revision to the list of defendants.
Notorious greenwasher and climate villain NW Natural is the first US gas utility to be sued in a climate accountability lawsuit.
The company accounts for 9% of Oregon's greenhouse gas emissions.
Thank you to @multco for holding polluters accountable. https://t.co/qWgmXQKWW0
— Breach Collective (@breachcollectiv) October 8, 2024
The lawsuit now names 24 defendants, 13 of which are oil and gas companies. The county also on Monday added the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine to the list.
A federal judge ruled in June that the case could proceed in Oregon state court—a loss for Big Oil, which had sought to move it to federal court.
Experts said the move to include NW Natural in the case could be the start of a movement to hold utilities accountable for their role in the fossil fuel economy and for deceiving the public about natural gas.
"Gas utilities have been significant players in the historic and ongoing deception campaigns to mislead the public about the dangers of fossil fuels," Alyssa Johl, general counsel at the Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement. "NW Natural is now the first to be named as a defendant in a climate deception lawsuit, but it likely won't be the last."
"Gas utilities have known for decades that their products fuel the climate crisis, yet they continue to deceptively market methane gas as a climate solution," she added.
Multnomah County in Oregon on Monday added NW Natural to the list of defendants in its climate deception lawsuit, making the company the first-ever gas utility to face a climate lawsuit.
The county, which encompasses Portland, sued an array of fossil fuel interests last year for deceiving the public about the dangers of their products. It's one of dozens of climate lawsuits municipalities and states around the United States have filed in recent years in a bid to hold the Big Oil accountable. None have yet reached a trial.
The Multnomah County lawsuit is unique in that it seeks damages for a specific extreme weather event: the heat dome that covered Portland in 2021, killing at least 69. The county seeks $50 million in damages for the heat dome, $1.5 billion for future damages, and $50 billion for climate adaptation.
"It is our purpose to hold accountable all of the companies that we allege engaged in wrongdoing associated with carbon pollution that has so negatively affected climate," Jeffrey Simon, co-lead counsel for Multnomah County, toldOPB following the revision to the list of defendants.
Notorious greenwasher and climate villain NW Natural is the first US gas utility to be sued in a climate accountability lawsuit.
The company accounts for 9% of Oregon's greenhouse gas emissions.
Thank you to @multco for holding polluters accountable. https://t.co/qWgmXQKWW0
— Breach Collective (@breachcollectiv) October 8, 2024
The lawsuit now names 24 defendants, 13 of which are oil and gas companies. The county also on Monday added the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine to the list.
A federal judge ruled in June that the case could proceed in Oregon state court—a loss for Big Oil, which had sought to move it to federal court.
Experts said the move to include NW Natural in the case could be the start of a movement to hold utilities accountable for their role in the fossil fuel economy and for deceiving the public about natural gas.
"Gas utilities have been significant players in the historic and ongoing deception campaigns to mislead the public about the dangers of fossil fuels," Alyssa Johl, general counsel at the Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement. "NW Natural is now the first to be named as a defendant in a climate deception lawsuit, but it likely won't be the last."
"Gas utilities have known for decades that their products fuel the climate crisis, yet they continue to deceptively market methane gas as a climate solution," she added.