TRENTON, NJ — Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs and the Department of Environmental Protection filed a lawsuit on Oct. 18 on behalf of New Jersey residents against five oil and gas companies and a petroleum trade association, alleging they knowingly made false claims to deceive the public about the existence of climate change and the degree to which their fossil fuels products have been exacerbating anthropogenic global warming.
The suit filed in New Jersey Superior Court in Mercer County names as defendants Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell Oil Co., Chevron Corp., BP, ConocoPhillips and the trade group in which these defendants were members — American Petroleum Institute. According to the complaint, the state is seeking to hold the defendants accountable for systematically concealing and denying their knowledge that fossil fuel consumption could have a catastrophic impact on the climate, causing the devastating consequences of fossil fuel overconsumption: the significant sea level rise, flooding and extreme weather that have battered New Jersey’s citizens and businesses, requiring the state and its residents to shoulder the enormous costs of rebuilding, hardening New Jersey’s defenses against severe weather and making the necessary transition away from reliance on fossil fuels to a more sustainable clean-energy future. API is accused of playing a key role in orchestrating and implementing climate denial campaigns on behalf of and under the supervision of the fossil fuel defendants.
The state alleges that the defendant oil and gas producers and API have known for decades that use of fossil fuels is a major cause of climate change, but instead of warning the public or the state about the danger, they launched public-relations campaigns to sow doubts about the existence, causes and effects of climate change with the goal of confusing the public, delaying the transition to a lower carbon economy and future, increasing their own profits, and further deepening dependence on their products.
“Based on their own research, these companies understood decades ago that their products were causing climate change and would have devastating environmental impacts down the road,” Platkin said. “They went to great lengths to hide the truth and mislead the people of New Jersey and the world. In short, these companies put their profits ahead of our safety. It’s long overdue that the facts be aired in a New Jersey court and the perpetrators of the disinformation campaign pay for the harms they’ve caused.”
“New Jersey is ground zero for some of the worst impacts of climate change,” NJDEP Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said. “Our communities and environment are continually recovering from extreme heat, furious storms and devastating floods. These conditions will sadly only worsen in the decades ahead, leaving us scrambling to prepare for a parade of harmful climate changes. All this while we rush to wean ourselves off the very products these companies have long known would fuel our pain but deceived New Jerseyans about, because keeping us addicted was better for their bottom line. It was wrong to mislead us; wrong to undermine climate science; wrong to put profit over people and the planet that we share. It is time New Jersey demands accountability.”
In addition to asking the court for an injunction ordering the energy companies to stop deceiving New Jersey consumers about the destructive environmental impacts of fossil fuels, the state is seeking civil monetary penalties and damages, including natural resource damages, such as the loss of substantial wetlands throughout the state, alleging taxpayers will be saddled with billions in expenses to protect communities from rising sea levels, deadlier storms and other climate-related harms, and to mitigate those harms by transitioning to non–fossil fuel energy generation — costs the state believes should be borne by the defendants.
According to the complaint, the oil and gas companies researched the link between fossil fuel consumption and climate change starting as early as the 1950s, and by the mid-’60s gained a comprehensive understanding of the adverse climate impacts of fossil fuels. The complaint alleges that internal fossil fuel industry documents reveal how the oil and gas producers’ scientists predicted that ongoing burning of fossil fuels would cause “dramatic environmental effects,” warning corporate executives that the world had a narrow window of time to curb emissions and stave off “catastrophic” climate change.
The state’s complaint alleges the defendant fossil fuel companies violated the Consumer Fraud Act by misrepresenting, suppressing and omitting material facts about the adverse impacts of their products through a national climate-denialist campaign starting in the 1980s and continuing through today, in which they used industry associations and front groups, such as API, to disseminate false and misleading information about climate change.
The complaint alleges the companies fell short of their legal obligation to warn consumers about all the hidden or latent dangers arising from the use of their products. The complaint also alleges negligence, impairment of the public trust, trespass and public nuisance.
Several attorneys general in other states have brought similar legal claims against the fossil fuel industry, including Rhode Island, Delaware, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia. Meanwhile, more than a dozen cities and counties have also filed lawsuits accusing oil and gas companies of misleading the public about climate change, including Hoboken.
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