• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update May 30, 2023
House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions May 30, 2023
13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires May 30, 2023
Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing May 30, 2023
Supreme Court Decision Undercuts U.S. Clean Water Act May 30, 2023
Next
Prev

Opioid Judgement Against Major Drugmaker Holds Hope for Court Action Against U.S. Fossils

September 10, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes

Max Goessler/Pixabay

Max Goessler/Pixabay

1
SHARES
 

A landmark Oklahoma court decision holding a major drugmaker responsible for its part in the opioid addiction crisis is catching the attention of the growing legion of U.S. lawyers trying to hold fossils accountable for their role in the climate crisis.

“The reason is this: Both the cases against pharmaceutical makers and those against the fossil fuel firms are founded on the same legal theory — that the companies’ sale of allegedly harmful products is creating a crisis for which they are financially responsible,” the Washington Post explains.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

In the US$572-million decision against Johnson & Johnson late last month, Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman found that “defendants’ actions caused harm, and those harms are the kinds recognized by [state law] because those actions annoyed, injured, or endangered the comfort, repose, health, or safety of Oklahomans.” Which parallels the arguments that climate lawyers and their clients are trying to build against oil and gas companies.

“A number of state, county, and city governments from Rhode Island to California are bringing lawsuits against firms like ExxonMobil, Chevron, Dutch Royal Shell ,and BP under the theory that the carbon dioxide their products put into the atmosphere has also created a public nuisance by contributing to climate change,” the Post states. “If successful, the lawsuits could put oil companies on the hook to pay billions of dollars to local governments contending with the cost of higher seas, hotter summers, and other effects of elevated greenhouse gases.”

The Post notes that the definition of public nuisance varies by jurisdiction, but usual ranges to local annoyances like blaring music, dangerous dogs that aren’t on a leash, or shooting off fireworks. But Balkman’s acceptance of a “more expansive view of public nuisance put forward by the state of Oklahoma in the opioid case is good news to those making similar arguments against oil companies.”

“This will be a useful precedent to point to,” said David Bookbinder, chief counsel at the Niskanen Center, who’s currently working with two counties and a city in Colorado.

The challenge is to take a global problem in which every consumer everywhere has a hand and link it back to specific fossil companies. “A molecule of carbon dioxide is literally around the world in seven days after it is produced and is effectively severed from its source,” said fossil attorney Scott Segal of Bracewell LLP. “Using the courts to address climate change stretches the application of nuisance law beyond its snapping point. Instead, issues like carbon emissions are more appropriately left to the legislative and regulatory process.”

However, “Bookbinder points out that Johnson & Johnson’s share of opioid sales in Oklahoma was less than 1% of the market, according to the company itself, yet it still lost in state court,” the Post writes. “Johnson & Johnson denies any wrongdoing and said it would appeal.”

Even with the Oklahoma decision in hand, the Post says there’s no certainty that public nuisance law will become a productive path for legal action against the fossil industry. A loss in the Oklahoma case “would have been a potentially devastating state court precedent for the climate change public nuisance cases now pending in state courts,” but “the converse is not true,” explained Harvard University environmental law professor Richard Lazarus. “A favourable ruling is certainly good news for the climate public nuisance plaintiffs, but the remaining lift necessary for the climate plaintiffs to prevail remains considerable.”

Continue Reading



in Legal & Regulatory, Oil & Gas, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

/Piqusels
Finance & Investment

Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update

May 31, 2023
317
Ryan Turnbull/Facebook
Legal & Regulatory

House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions

May 30, 2023
125
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr
Jobs & Training

Clean Energy to Add 700,000 New Jobs by 2050, with Alberta in the Lead

May 30, 2023
114

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

/Piqusels

Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update

May 31, 2023
317
Neal Alderson/Twitter

Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax

May 29, 2023
2.4k
Martin Davis/Facebook

13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires

May 30, 2023
513
Ryan Turnbull/Facebook

House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions

May 30, 2023
125
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr

Clean Energy to Add 700,000 New Jobs by 2050, with Alberta in the Lead

May 30, 2023
114
York Region/flickr

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 31, 2023
360

Recent Posts

David/flickr

Supreme Court Decision Undercuts U.S. Clean Water Act

May 30, 2023
45
Nicolas Rénac/Flickr

Climate Change to Cut Coffee Growing Lands by Over 50%

May 30, 2023
47
ValiGreceanu/Pixabay

Report Urges Tax Hike for Luxury Air Travel, ‘Pets on Jets’

May 30, 2023
39
Jörg Möller/Pixabay

UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety

May 29, 2023
81

Waste Heat from Quebec Data Centre to Grow 80,000 Tonnes of Veggies Per Year

May 29, 2023
114
kpgolfpro/Pixabay

Community Wind Farm Earns Support, Generates Income in German Village

May 29, 2023
71
Next Post
Child labour artisan mining Congo cobalt

Report Links Human Rights Abuses to Raw Materials for EVs, Solar Panels, and Wind Turbines

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}