Puerto Rico Sues Oil Giants Over Decades of Climate Deception

Puerto Rico's secretary of justice on Monday filed a climate liability lawsuit against fossil fuel companies including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil Corporation, Shell, and TotalEnergies in the Court of First Instance of San Juan.

By filing the suit, which seeks at least $1 billion in compensation from the defendants, Domingo Emanuelli Hernández, the chief legal officer in the U.S. commonwealth, followed in the footsteps of dozens of U.S. municipal and state leaders.

"These companies have known internally for decades that greenhouse gas pollution from fossil fuel products would have adverse impacts on the global climate and sea level," Emanuelli said in a statement in Spanish. "Armed with that knowledge, they took steps to protect their own assets from climate damage and risks, through immense internal investment in research, infrastructure improvements, and plans to exploit new business opportunities in a warming world."

"However, they did not truthfully warn Puerto Rican consumers about the consequences of using and burning fossil fuels on the island, as well as their impact on the environment," he continued. "It is time for them to mitigate the damage they have caused to Puerto Rico and not let Puerto Ricans foot the bill."

Emanuelli now joins the attorneys general of the District of Columbia, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont, who have all launched similar suits, and Michigan's AG, who is planning one. There are also several cases brought by municipalities, including one previously filed in Puerto Rico.

As E&E Newsreported Tuesday, "More than a dozen municipalities filed suit in 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, asking the industry for compensation related to the 2017 hurricane season that killed thousands of people and left much of the island without power for nearly a year."

Scientists with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have said that 2023 was the hottest year in human history and 2024 is on track to continue that trend, with the January through June global surface temperature already ranked warmest in the 175-year record. NOAA has also warned that the current Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be "extraordinary."

Welcoming Emanuelli's new move to protect the Caribbean island, Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement Tuesday that "Puerto Rico has paid a terrible price for Big Oil's climate lies, and now officials are taking necessary action to hold these corporations accountable and make polluters pay for damages they knowingly caused."

"As communities suffer from more and more unnatural disasters fueled by Big Oil's climate deception, it's more important than ever for officials to stand up to the fossil fuel industry on behalf of their communities," he added. "The people of Puerto Rico deserve their day in court to hold Big Oil accountable."

Along with civil climate suits filed by attorneys general and local leaders, some campaigners and lawmakers have demanded that the U.S. Department of Justice take legal action against fossil fuel companies—particularly given the recent findings of a three-year congressional probe.

As Common Dreamsreported last month, there is also a nascent movement in the United States urging prosecutors to consider hitting oil majors with criminal charges for deaths related to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.