Over 1,000 Disaster Survivors Demand DOJ Probe Into Big Oil Climate Crimes

Over 1,000 survivors of extreme weather events on Thursday demanded a federal investigation into Big Oil's role in perpetuating the climate crisis, adding to pressure on the Biden administration to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for spreading disinformation and obstructing a clean energy transition.

With the support of nonprofits Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Public Citizen, the survivors signed a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and delivered to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

"Some of us have lost our homes and property, our businesses, and our entire communities to climate-driven disasters," they wrote.

"While our stories and experiences are diverse, the fossil fuel industry's misconduct is a consistent throughline," they added.

"Instead of acting responsibly on their own scientists' warnings, [fossil fuel companies] waged a decadeslong disinformation campaign to muddy the science and confuse and mislead the public," they said.

Jenny Sebold, a single mother of three in Montpelier, Vermont who signed the letter, said in a statement that she has had to rebuild her life following the Great Vermont Flood of 2023. She's faced dire financial difficulty as a result, and had to go hungry last month so that she could afford to send her son to hockey camp, she said.

"Meanwhile the rich oil execs get to keep making piles of money," Sebold said. "It's wrong. They've got to be held accountable and help rebuild the communities that have been impacted."

Clara Vondrich, senior policy counsel at Public Citizen, said that "survivors of climate crimes deserve justice no less than the victims of homicide, arson, assault and battery, armed robbery, and other felonies."

She said:

Climate catastrophes are not natural disasters—they are crimes perpetrated by the fossil fuel industry. The human toll has been unimaginable, destroying entire communities, wrecking businesses that families built from the ground up, and stealing lives. Climate survivors and their allies have had enough, and our message to the Justice Department is clear: Investigate the fossil fuel industry and make polluters pay.

The letter, which was also signed by more than 9,000 others who've had loved ones face climate disasters, is part of a growing push for accountability for Big Oil. Fossil fuel companies knew about the climate impact of their products since at least the 1950s or 1960s but publicly denied the science for decades, and then evolved their strategy to propagate disinformation and use doublespeak to avoid the phaseout of fossil fuel use, which drives climate change.

In May, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) formally called on the DOJ to investigate Big Oil, following a three-year joint congressional investigation that had culminated in a damning 65-page report released in late April.

Dozens of municipalities and states have already filed lawsuits against Big Oil for its role in the climate crisis. The most prominent case is City and County of Honolulu v. Sunoco et al, which could be the first to go to trial and has been the subject of unprecedented legal and political wrangling as the fossil fuel industry seeks to have the case thrown out.

An investigation or lawsuit by the DOJ would, however, be a major turning point, according to Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, which supports the lawsuits.

"The DOJ is a completely different animal," Wiles toldThe Guardian earlier this month. "Its power is far greater than any attorney general's office in a state. They have the FBI, they have a lot more investigative resources, and they've got a lot more authority than a state attorney general is ever going to have."

Wiles expressed optimism that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, will push for the DOJ to use that authority if she wins the election. He told the newspaper that he sensed that Garland, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, had "no interest" in pursuing a case against Big Oil.

The existing lawsuits are civil cases, but experts have also advocated for criminal charges against Big Oil for climate-related deaths. A poll released in May showed that roughly half of Americans support such criminal prosecution. The world's first such criminal case was initiated in France in May but it's not clear whether the prosecutor there will in fact pursue it.