Multnomah County, Oregon, joins the fight to make Big Oil pay

Two years after the deadly 2021 heat dome, Oregon’s most populous county is suing to hold Big Oil accountable for their role in fueling the climate crisis.

In June 2021, temperatures in Multnomah County, Oregon, soared to a historic 116 degrees, blindsiding the usually mild Pacific Northwest and sending county officials scrambling to open emergency cooling shelters and mobilize outreach to vulnerable residents. 

Despite the unprecedented emergency response, 69 people in the county died over the course of the five-day heat dome. Scientists declared that the extreme heat — which killed hundreds more residents throughout the Pacific Northwest — was “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.” 

Now, two years later, Multnomah County has filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit to hold Big Oil companies accountable for fueling that deadly heat dome and other climate damages through their decades-long campaign of deception. 

The suit demands ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, and other oil and gas majors pay more than $50 billion for past and future costs to protect county residents from climate damages. Filed in Oregon state court, Multnomah County’s case is part of a growing nationwide wave of climate accountability lawsuits that seek to make fossil fuel companies pay for climate damages they knowingly caused. 

"This lawsuit is about accountability and fairness, and I believe the people of Multnomah County deserve both,” Multnomah County Chair Jesscia Vega Pederson said in a press release. “These businesses knew their products were unsafe and harmful, and they lied about it. They have profited massively from their lies and left the rest of us to suffer the consequences and pay for the damages.”

The suit is the first of its kind to name McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm that represents Big Oil companies, as a defendant, emphasizing the role greenwashing plays in enabling oil and gas majors to avoid accountability for their climate destruction. 

The county’s case is also the first to be filed after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to entertain industry arguments this spring, sending dozens of cases closer to trial in state courts.

“Communities should not be forced to pay the price for these catastrophic climate damages while the companies that caused the crisis perpetuate their lies and rake in record profits,” CCI President Richard Wiles said. “The people of Multnomah County deserve their day in court to hold Big Oil accountable.”