Puerto Rico file racketeering lawsuit against Exxon, others for deceiving public on climate-change effects

Dec 22, 2022 News

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(The Guardian) – The same racketeering legislation used to bring down mob bosses,
motorcycle gangs, football executives and international fraudsters is to be tested against oil and coal companies who are accused of conspiring to deceive the publicnover the climate crisis.

In an ambitious move, an attempt will be made to hold the fossil fuel industry
accountable for “decades of deception” in a lawsuit being brought by communities
in Puerto Rico that were devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

“Puerto Rico is one of the most affected places by climate change in the world. It is
so precariously positioned – they get hit on all fronts with hurricanes, storm surge,
heat, coral bleaching – it’s the perfect place for this climate litigation,” said
Melissa Sims, senior counsel for the plaintiffs’ law firm Milberg.

The 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act was
originally intended to combat criminal enterprises like the mafia, but has since
been used in civil courts to litigate harms caused by opioids, vehicle emissions and
even e-cigarettes as organised crime cases.

Now, the first-ever climate change Rico case alleges that international oil and coal
companies, their trade associations, and a network of paid thinktanks, scientists
and other operatives conspired to deceive the public – specifically residents of
Puerto Rico – about the direct link between their greenhouse gas-emitting
products and climate change.

This fossil fuel enterprise, which remains operational according to the lawsuit,
resulted in multitude of damages caused by climate disasters that were foreseen –
but hidden – by the defendants in order to maximise profits.

The plaintiffs are 16 municipalities in Puerto Rico – towns and cities that were hit
hard by two powerful hurricanes in September 2017, Irma and Maria – which led
to thousands of deaths, food shortages, widespread infrastructure damage and the
longest blackout in US history.

Sims, the senior counsel, said: “What’s different about this [Rico] case is that we
have their enterprise in writing – the decision by rival companies, their front
groups, scientists and associations to act together to change public opinion
regarding the use of their consumer products by telling people something that they
knew was not true.”

According to the lawsuit – filed in the US federal district court of Puerto Rico –
evidence of the conspiracy dates back to 1989 when the defendants, which include
ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Rio Tinto, individually and through trade association
formed the Global Climate Coalition (GCC) as a “not-for-profit corporation to

influence, advertise, and promote the interests of the fossil fuel industry by giving
false information to their consumers and the public at large”.
It argues that so-called rival companies conspired for a common purpose – to
deceive consumers and sow confusion in order to keep fossil fuel sales high and
profitable – and that the GCC was a propaganda machine specifically set up to
oppose the Kyoto protocol, the first major international effort to combat climate
change. To do this, a written action plan was devised in 1998 to mislead
consumers by convincing them that “global warming” was not occurring, and if it
did happen, there was no scientific consensus on whether fossil fuels were to
blame.
In other words, the action plan was allegedly a climate change denial plan
executed through a network of dark money ploughed into thinktanks, research

institutions, trade groups and PR firms, and provided a roadmap for an open-
ended enterprise that is still implemented today.

The lawsuit argues that the oil and coal companies knew that Puerto Rico was a
“sitting duck” because of its geographic location, which made the island and its
people particularly vulnerable to climate change events – namely hotter and
wetter storms, extreme heat and rising sea level – caused by their carbon products.
Over the past two decades, Puerto Rico – along with Haiti and Myanmar – has
been among three territories most affected by extreme weather such as storms,
floods, heatwaves and droughts, according to the Germanwatch Climate Risk
Index, which are becoming more intense due to human-made global heating
driven by greenhouse gases. In September, Hurricane Ian left much of the island
without power and water, as well as damaging essential infrastructure like roads
and bridges.

The damages resulting from the 2017 storms – and the likelihood of worse climate
disasters battering the island in the future – come down to the acts and omissions

of the defendants, as the oil and coal companies, along with their worldwide co-
venturers, are collectively responsible for at least 40.01% of greenhouse gases, the

lawsuit argues.

It’s the latest in a wave of civil class actions brought by municipalities – towns and
cities – against corporations and organizations accused of causing harm to
residents. According to Sims, who has also represented Puerto Rico municipalities
in opioid litigation which resulted in compensation for damages, cites have an
almost unfettered ability to use their nuisance laws and local ordinances.

Sims, a Republican and Christian, said: “Cities across the nation have woken up to
this power and are starting to exercise their rights almost like mini attorney
generals. They are now often the first ones bringing cases on opioids, Juul
electronic cigarettes, pollution, reverse red-lining and now climate change, using
their rights pursuant to racketeering and other laws we’ve helped fine-tune over
the years.”

Seven oil firms, three coal companies, and hundreds of organisations and
operatives are among the defendants accused of consumer fraud, racketeering,
antitrust, fraudulent misrepresentation, conspiracy to defraud, products liability
and unjust enrichment among other crimes.

The American Petroleum Institute and the National Mining Association did not
respond to requests for comment. Several of the defendants have made statements
criticising the lawsuit.

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