CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson has the world’s largest oil and gas companies in his crosshairs.
The city of Chicago filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court Tuesday against BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Shell, accusing the companies of “deceiving Chicago consumers about the climate dangers associated with their products,” according to a news release. Also named in the lawsuit is trade group American Petroleum Institute.
The 185-page complaint outlines “damages Chicago has incurred” from the companies’ exacerbation of climate change, according to the news release.
“If unabated, climate change could result in catastrophic impacts on our city,” the city’s Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry said in a statement. “We bring this lawsuit to ensure that the Defendants who have profited from the deception campaign bear responsibility for their conduct.”
Ald. Matt Martin (47th) said in a statement Chicago has paid the price with the destruction of city infrastructure due to extreme heat, record-setting floods, sewage flows into Lake Michigan and other effects of the climate crisis.
“These companies knowingly deceived Chicago consumers in their endless pursuit of profits,” Martin said in the statement. “This all comes with enormous costs … we intend to shift those costs back where they belong: on the companies whose deceptive conduct brought us the climate crisis.”
Other cities and states including New York and California have turned to lawsuits in a bid to recover some of the possible billions in damages brought on by the burning of oil and gas, according to the Sun-Times.
Filing sweeping and politically motivated lawsuits has become part of the playbook for Johnson and other big-city mayors. Johnson’s administration filed suit last year against automakers Kia and Hyundai for deceiving consumers and failing to equip their cars with anti-theft technology.
In a high-profile lawsuit last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams accused TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube of contributing to the youth mental health crisis.
Legal observers said Johnson is in for an uphill climb — and maybe more than a decade of litigation — against some of “the wealthiest companies in the world,” according to the Sun-Times.
Johnson said in a statement the lawsuit targeting the oil and gas companies is a necessary step in demanding accountability.
“From the unprecedented poor air quality that we experienced last summer to the basement flooding that our residents on the West Side experienced, the consequences of this crisis are severe,” Johnson said in the statement. “That is why we are seeking to hold these defendants accountable.”
Fossil fuels including oil and gas are “by far” the largest contributors to global climate change, which poses existentialist threats to humans by causing dangerously high temperatures and sea levels to rise, according to the United Nations.
Support Local News!
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods. Already subscribe? Click here to gift a subscription, or you can support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.
Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:
