The District Of Columbia could literally not run without fossil fuels. All the cars and buses. All the people coming to tour the capital in fossil fueled vehicles and airplanes. All the government workers using fossil fueled travel. All the elected officials. Visitors and government folks coming from other countries. If there’s any one place playing this lawsuit game where the fossil fuels companies could say “nope, not selling fossil fuels in the area”, D.C. would be it
District of Columbia Sues BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell for Misleading Public on Climate Change
Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl A. Racine sued four of the world’s largest oil and gas companies on Thursday for misleading consumers about the impact their products have on the climate.
Coming just a day after Minnesota filed a similar suit, the District lawsuit contends that BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell have been aware since the 1950s of the threat posed by fossil fuels but launched public relations campaigns to manufacture doubt about the reality and seriousness of climate change. It seeks a court order for the companies to pay civil penalties, provide financial relief for District residents, and stop their disingenuous PR campaigns.
“For decades, these oil and gas companies spent millions to mislead consumers and discredit climate science in pursuit of profits,†Racine said in a statement. “The defendants violated the District’s consumer protection law by concealing the fact that using fossil fuels threatens the health of District residents and the environment. [The Office of the Attorney General] filed this suit to end these disinformation campaigns and to hold these companies accountable for their deceptive practices.â€
For all the fancy rationale, this is simply a shakedown.
The lawsuit also maintains that the companies’ current marketing campaigns hype the relative “green†benefits of natural gas and other products, suggesting that they are “clean†and “emissions-reducing,†while concealing the fact that they still contribute significantly to the climate crisis.
And no more natural gas for D.C.
Start by refusing to sell to the D.C. government.
The District should have long ago been pared of its residential areas, and have them returned to Maryland.
But, it’s fine: BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell should simply close down all of their sales outlets in the District, forcing everybody to take the Metro.
If you’ve never ridden the Metro, you might not be aware: unlike the New York subway system, where the fare is $2.75 per trip, paid at the beginning, and including all transfers, on the Metro you are charged by the length of the ride.
As Washington Gas noted, “Today, clean-burning natural gas is the fuel of choice for more than nine out of 10 new home buyers in the D.C. metro area.” Natural gas can keep your home heated when the sparktricity fails,
Pollution is the price we pay for a developed society.
Democrats really can never be trusted with political power. They will always use it to cash in.