Maryland County Files New Climate Fraud and Damages Lawsuit Against Big Oil

ANNAPOLIS, MD - Anne Arundel County, Maryland, yesterday became the latest municipality to file a lawsuit seeking to hold major oil and gas companies — including ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell — accountable for lying to the public about their products’ role in climate change and to recover costs associated with sea-level rise, flooding, and other local climate damages that the companies knew their products would cause. 

Anne Arundel is the third municipality in Maryland to file such a lawsuit: The City of Baltimore’s 2018 case currently has a procedural issue pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the City of Annapolis, in Anne Arundel County, filed suit on February 22.

Anne Arundel is also the fifth community to name the American Petroleum Institute, the major oil and gas trade association, as a defendant in a climate liability lawsuit. 

Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement: 

“Big Oil’s decades of  climate deception have brought the world to the brink and cost communities across the country millions. It’s only right that local governments are saying enough and turning to the courts for justice. The industry fights these cases vigorously because they’re afraid of the damning evidence against them — as they should be.”