California sues oil giants for damages and deception

California has just filed lawsuits against five of the world’s largest oil companies. The reason ? They would have caused billions of dollars in damage while misleading public opinion by minimizing the climate risks linked to fossil fuels.

This legal action, revealed by THE New York Times and confirmed by the governor of the state, follows numerous others launched by American cities, counties and states against interests linked to fossil fuels because of their environmental impact, against a backdrop of accusations of decades of disinformation campaigns .

“So that big polluters are held accountable”

The civil complaint was filed Friday in San Francisco Superior Court against oil giants Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, which is headquartered in California. The American Petroleum Institute is also targeted, specifies the New York Times.

“For more than fifty years, Big Oil [surnom désignant les géants du secteur pétrolier] lied to us, hiding the fact that they knew for a long time how dangerous the fossil fuels they produced were for our planet”said the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, in a statement released Friday. “California is taking action to hold big polluters accountable,” he added.