Press Releases
July 6, 2020
Stanford, CA - Scholarly, legal, and community voices will discuss the status of ongoing lawsuits brought by California cities and counties to hold fossil fuel producers accountable for climate adaptation costs and decades of public disinformation on climate change during an online discussion for Stanford Law School on Thursday, July 9. Panelists will also discuss the implications of recent decisions from two federal appeals courts that allow such climate accountability lawsuits in California and Baltimore to proceed in state court.
The lawsuits in California have been filed by the counties of Marin, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz, and the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Imperial Beach, Richmond, and Santa Cruz
WHAT: Online Stanford Law Event: “The Case for Climate Liability: Recent appellate decisions on holding fossil fuel producers accountable for climate damages”
WHO: Speakers will include
Ann Carlson, Professor, and Co-Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law
Sharon Eubanks, Chief Counsel, National Whistleblower Center
Dr. Kate Sears, Supervisor for Marin County
Dr. Benjamin Franta (Moderator), Stanford JD-PhD student who studies the history of fossil fuel producers and climate science
WHEN: Thursday, July 9, from 12 noon to 1 p.m. PDT
WHERE: Register here
This event is sponsored by the Stanford Environmental & Natural Resources Law and Policy Program and the Center for Climate Integrity. It is free and open to the media.
Background:
Litigation against fossil fuel producers is a growing trend in California and across the U.S. that cities, counties, and states are using to shift the burden of climate adaptation costs from taxpayers to polluters and hold fossil fuel producers accountable for decades of documented public disinformation about climate change. More than a dozen city and county governments in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, and Washington, as well as the State of Rhode Island, have brought lawsuits in recent years to recover billions of dollars in damages caused by the oil and gas industry’s deception about climate change. Such suits have the potential not only to provide revenue for needed adaptation infrastructure but also to change the conversation regarding who is liable for damages arising from climate change.