Pirate's Cove

Strangely, King County hasn’t announced that it will no longer use fossil fuels for county operations

(Seattle Curbed) King County filed a lawsuit in county superior court today against five major oil companies, seeking to put BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch, and Conoco Phillips on the hook for the county’s response to climate change.

The suit, developed by the county along with Seattle law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, seeks to create an abatement fund to address necessary changes to infrastructure, like stormwater management, bridge maintenance, salmon recovery, and public health. It’s similar to a lawsuit filed against the same oil companies by Oakland and San Francisco last year,

“[King County] does not seek to impose liability on Defendants for their direct emissions of greenhouse gases and does not seek to restrain Defendants from engaging in their business operations,” reads the lawsuit.

“This case is, fundamentally, about shifting the costs of abatement back onto the companies,” it continues. “After all, it is Defendants who have profited and will continue to profit by knowingly contributing to global warming, thereby doing all they can to help create and maintain a profound public nuisance.”

In other words, nothing has actually happened from Hotcoldwetdry yet, but, King County wants these oil companies to pay for it, and wants the oil companies to, get this, continue operating so they can continue paying for the Climate Doom that they are supposedly going to cause.

According to county attorneys, the abatement fund “could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Shakedown. Of course, the oil companies have better lawyers kept on retainer or directly employed by the companies, who will, if wise, argue that the county is complaining about a product that it used and continues to use and has no plans to stop using, despite complaining it is causing Bad Weather and stuff.

Said announcement is here. Perhaps you should contact Alex Fryer, Executive Office, 206-477-7966, ask him if King County plans to stop using fossil fuels.

Already, areas of King County that were once above the mean high tide line now experience regular flooding. Sea level is projected to continue rising through the 21st century, increasing by as much as 56 inches in the Puget Sound region from 2000 to 2100. This would have significant consequences for King County and the region.

The actual tide gauge for Seattle shows a minimal 2.05mm per year, equivalent to .67 feet per hundred years. That’s a long way off from 4.667 feet, eh? Most Washington gauges show even less, and one even shows negative sea rise. Facts are a bitch for the Cult of Climastrology.