Milton’s Landing: Big Oil Must Pay for Major Storm Damage | Comments

In 1989, Shell published an internal report that explored two possible futures, one where fossil fuels were regulated and one that was not. In the first scenario, which they called a “sustainable world”, greenhouse gas emissions began to decline rapidly around the year 2000 and global warming was halted. On the other hand, where fossil fuel production continued rapidly, Shell researchers predicted a world of climate chaos—one with a dramatic increase in “extreme weather, ” especially “many hurricanes” and “many floods.” These disasters, Shell concluded, could cause problems of such magnitude that “[c]ivilization can prove a weak thing. “

Severe weather, hurricanes, floods, lack of development—for countless families in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, these predictions have come true. Hurricane Helene was a terrible disaster. Experts estimated that the loss of the storm could reach $ 160 billion. Entire communities have been wiped out—families left homeless, businesses gone, livelihoods destroyed. Millions have been left without electricity, water, or any immediate prospect of their return. And many more have lost their lives – the current death toll from Helene is over 200, and experts predict that this number will increase significantly given the number of hundreds of civilians who are still anonymous. Now, Hurricane Milton threatens even more damage in Florida.

If a Bond villain had pressed the “killer hurricane” button to cause such a deadly storm, law enforcement agencies would make it their priority to find the villain and prosecute them in the fullness of the law. Our prosecutors and public safety officials do not currently treat extreme weather in this way. But for disasters like Helene, whose destructive power can be largely attributed to climate change, perhaps they should.

If you engage in reckless conduct that creates a substantial risk of injury or death, you have committed the crime of reckless endangerment. If your negligent behavior actually causes death, you have committed manslaughter or manslaughter. And if you negligently cause death while on the job with a disregard for human life, you have committed second degree murder.

These crimes perfectly describe Big Oil’s behavior in the destruction, injuries, and deaths we saw this month from Hurricane Helene, and will likely see again from Milton. A relatively small number of Big Oil companies are responsible for producing most of the greenhouse gases that have caused our planet to warm. These same companies have used (and continue to use) many tools to distribute climate fraud designed to prevent and delay market solutions and policies that would have prevented or improved climate change. This behavior was a direct and major cause of the unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico that caused Helene to rapidly strengthen in 24 hours from a Category 1 to a Category 4 hurricane and increasing the moisture she carried, allowing Helene to stay even stronger. inside the country. In fact, a study of seasonal rainfall found that climate change has caused more than 50 percent of Helene’s rainfall and made it more likely that it will rain twice as often. 20 more than that.

To sue Big Oil for climate disasters like Helene, prosecutors will also need to show these companies were negligent. In criminal law, recklessness means knowing that an act is dangerous and doing it anyway. So it is important that Helene was actually the type of “aggressive conditions” and “flood” that Shell predicted their coal products would cause back in 1989; or Exxon foresaw in 1982 when the company reported internally that climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels would “cause flooding” across “much” of the United States.; or executives at Chevron and BP were undeniably warned in 1980 when their executives were warned that their fossil fuel products would lead to “dangerous” climate risks around the world”. The devastating heat wave that killed thousands across the American Southwest this summer also comes as no surprise to these organizations, whose researchers predicted in 1996 that global warming would cause ” suffering and death from extreme heat.”

So, these companies – and their CEOs – have knowingly created climate chaos as they trick the American public with disinformation to prevent responses that would have reduced the threat, even though we understand very well that the behavior they can cause the damage we’ve seen since Hurricane. Helen. This is a textbook example of reckless endangerment or, in relation to the death from Helene, senseless murder.

Yet until now Big Oil has faced endless liability for this misconduct. In fact, these companies are doing better than ever before. So are their executives—for example, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, who once played a major role in pushing ExxonMobil to ramp up its production while overseeing much of the world’s climate change effort. company, he has become incredibly wealthy through his climate crimes; from 2015 to 2023 he earned $198.9 million in compensation and owns company shares worth $371.1 million.

Regular people pay the ultimate price for this sociopathic greed. Homeless families, wives and husbands and parents and children who have lost loved ones by Helene—these victims deserve justice just as much as the victims of street crimes, and the companies and corporate executives responsible for the pain and their suffering deserves a criminal punishment. at least as much, if not more, than the average street offender. Climate victims have paid dearly for the careless behavior of Big Oil. It’s time to make polluters pay.

Aaron Regunberg is a former Democratic attorney general and senior climate policy advisor at the National People’s Congress.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own.