Press Releases
May 1, 2024
Washington, D.C. — A former Justice Department attorney who successfully sued Big Tobacco companies for lying to the public told a U.S. Senate committee today that similar legal actions could be brought against Big Oil companies for lying about their role in the climate crisis.
During a hearing into the fossil fuel industry’s climate deception, Sharon Eubanks, the former director of the Tobacco Litigation Team at the Department of Justice, said that “just as the Department of Justice investigated the tobacco industry and ultimately filed a civil racketeering case, complaints against the [oil] industry have similarities in the fraudulent acts, and the government was successful in the tobacco case, so there is certainly an adequate legal foundation for litigation against this industry.”
She added, “The behavior and goals of the tobacco industry and petroleum industry are quite similar, and for this reason there are many similarities in their liabilities. Both industries lied to the public and regulators about what they knew about the harms of their product and they lied about when they knew it.”
In presenting findings from a years-long House investigation into Big Oil, Representative Jamie Raskin also drew parallels between the two industries: “During our probe, I’ve been struck by the parallels of Big Oil’s aggressive denialism about climate change and the tobacco industries suppression of the truth about tobacco addiction,” he said, adding that after DOJ’s tobacco lawsuit, “the companies were ordered to cease and desist their propaganda and to start telling the truth.”
Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement:
“As the committee's investigation has repeatedly shown, Big Oil continues to lie about its role in causing and perpetuating climate change, as it has obstructed the committee's fact finding and used front groups to block climate policies. It is time for the Department of Justice to step in and defeat Big Oil's efforts to withhold the truth from the American people.”
Background on Congressional Calls for DOJ Action Against Big Oil
Last summer, nearly two dozen House and Senate members wrote letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Department of Justice to either investigate or sue Exxon, Shell, and other fossil fuel companies for violating fraud, racketeering, and other federal laws.
Background on State and Local Climate Accountability Lawsuits Against Big Oil
The attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia, as well as dozens of municipal governments in California, Colorado, Hawai`i, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico, and two tribal governments, have filed lawsuits to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about their products’ role in climate change.