Prosecute Big Oil for Climate Crimes Using Existing Laws
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- Aaron Regunberg, director of Public Citizen's Climate Accountability Project, argues existing criminal statutes — reckless endangerment, risking catastrophe, and involuntary manslaughter — are sufficient to prosecute Big Oil for climate harms.
- A Washington state court ruled this month that a wrongful-death lawsuit against fossil fuel companies over a climate-induced heatwave can proceed to discovery and trial.
- Studies validated by the National Academy of Sciences found pollution from ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP made past climate-exacerbated heatwaves at least 10,000 times more likely versus preindustrial levels.
- Internal Big Oil documents from decades ago predicted fossil fuels would cause 'globally catastrophic' climate harms, yet the companies orchestrated fraudulent denial campaigns to lock in fossil fuel use.
- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a risking-catastrophe conviction against pier operators who concealed structural dangers — a precedent Regunberg says maps directly onto Big Oil's climate deception.
- The Fourth of July heatwave would have been 'virtually impossible' without climate change, per a published study; Pennsylvania and New Jersey — both with catastrophe-risk statutes on the books — were among the hardest-hit states.
Why it matters: A Washington court just greenlit a fossil-fuel wrongful-death suit to proceed, giving prosecutors a potential template. Pennsylvania and New Jersey — among the states hit hardest by July's lethal heatwave — already have risking-catastrophe statutes that courts have used to convict actors who concealed known dangers, creating a legal pathway Regunberg argues applies directly to Big Oil.
