Here’s an idea: all the companies being sued should stop selling their products in Puerto Rico and for use for Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican towns sue Big Oil under RICO alleging collusion on climate denial
Puerto Rican municipalities have filed a lawsuit in federal court saying ExxonMobil Corp, Shell Plc, Chevron Corp and others colluded to publicly downplay the risks of their fossil-fuel products on climate change and are financially responsible for damages from the devastating 2017 hurricane season, which was made worse by global warming.
The group of 16 municipalities filed what they called a first-of-its-kind lawsuit last week against about a dozen fossil fuel companies and others. The towns say the companies coordinated a multibillion-dollar “fraudulent marketing scheme” to convince consumers that fossil fuel products do not alter the climate. That campaign ran contrary to the companies’ own studies showing their products accelerate climate change, resulting in more deadly storms, the lawsuit said.
The municipalities said the companies outlined a plan of deception in a joint memo that took aim at international climate negotiations in the 1990s. The coordinated deception spanning decades violates U.S. racketeering and antitrust laws among others, the suit claims.
“Puerto Rico was hit by the perfect storm and is the ultimate victim of global warming,” said Marc Grossman, a partner at Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, a firm representing the municipalities, in a statement.
It’s basically a shakedown, one in which the lawyers will get a lot of money. Nowhere in the suit are those 16 municipalities pledging to forgo the use of fossil fuels. And, PR wouldn’t survive in the modern world without them. They need them for tourism. They need them for the planes that fly in to deliver tourists, as well as being a stopping point before people take fossil fueled flights to other Caribbean islands or jump on cruise ships. Plus the cruise ships that come to PR. All the fishing boats. All the hotels. And simply delivering so many goods and foods.
PR has very limited resources, so, pretty much everything must be brought in. Can they do away with stuff coming in on sailing ships? Heck, all that Puerto Rican rum which is so prized? Yeah, they have to import most of the molasses to make it.
(Britannica) Services, including trade, finance, tourism, and government work, have become the dominant and most dynamic force in Puerto Rico’s economy, accounting for about half of the GDP and as much as three-fourths of employment on the island. Government functions produce about one-tenth of the island’s GDP and employ roughly one-fifth of the workforce.
None of that survives without fossil fuels. Did fossil fuels cause Hurricane San Roque in 1508? How about the Great Hurricane in 1780?
Read: Hotcold Take: Puerto Rico Towns Sue Fossil Fuels Companies, Alleging RICO Act Violations »