News & Analysis
October 19, 2026
A New Jersey county is suing Big Oil companies and their largest trade association for lying about the harms of their fossil fuel products and knowingly fueling extreme weather events.
Middlesex County, New Jersey, joins similar climate accountability lawsuits from Hoboken and the state of New Jersey. The county cited the growing costs taxpayers are shouldering in the face of rising temperatures, intense precipitation events, destructive floods, and frequent drought conditions.
“This lawsuit is a necessary step forward to help protect our communities from further damage from extreme weather events,” said Middlesex County Commissioner Director Ronald Rios. “Our residents are not only bearing the costs of damage from flooding and other natural disasters, but also the rising everyday costs of protecting their homes and families from extreme heat and cold.”
According to the county’s lawsuit, filed at the end of September, Hurricanes Irene, Sandy, and Ida alone caused Middlesex County $199.4 million in damage. While FEMA provided the county with approximately $33.2 million in the aftermath of those hurricanes, the county is seeking to recover costs from ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, and other Big Oil companies for knowingly fueling extreme weather conditions and lying about it to the public and lawmakers.
“We are taking action to seek compensation for those losses and costs from the corporations whose actions are at the center of this lawsuit, while pursuing resources to strengthen our infrastructure, mitigate future damage, and better protect Middlesex County residents,” Rios said.
The county’s lawsuit was filed days before a similar climate accountability lawsuit’s ability to move toward trial was being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. A decision in Boulder, Colorado’s climate deception lawsuit is expected in the coming months.
Photo Credit: “Wet Weather Overflow” by Dendroica cerulea via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
