CHICAGO—The City of Chicago, represented by DiCello Levitt’s Environmental Litigation Practice and San Francisco-based firm Sher Edling, this week filed a lawsuit against the world’s largest fossil fuel companies, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips, and BP, as well as the oil industry lobbying group the American Petroleum Institute. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants, for decades, misled and failed to warn the public about the catastrophic consequences of climate change. Chicago’s climate change damage and deception litigation aims at shifting the skyrocketing mitigation cost of weather-induced events away from taxpayers and back to the fossil fuel giants as the real culprits of the climate crisis.
“There is no justice without accountability,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. “From the unprecedented poor air quality that we experienced last summer to the basement floodings that our residents on the West Side experienced, the consequences of this crisis are severe, as are the costs of surviving them. That is why we are seeking to hold these Defendants accountable.”
“Our complaint alleges that the Defendants for decades deceived the public about their products’ devastating impact on climate change. These oil companies should be required to pay for the substantial damages they caused. Our lawsuit alleges ten causes of action, including Failure to Warn, Negligence, Public Nuisance, Civil Conspiracy, and Unjust Enrichment,” DiCello Levitt Founding Partner Adam Levitt added.
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