Jeffrey goes on air with Fox 5 (Washington DC) to discuss 2023’s deadliest year in American history for heat related deaths and the $52B lawsuit against Big Oil.
As deaths mount from extreme heat and other climate disasters, legal and scientific experts are joining forces on a bold new tactic: Charging polluters with homicide.
When scientific studies showed that the extreme temperatures were caused by heat domes, which experts say are influenced by climate change, county officials didn’t just chalk it up to a random weather occurrence. They started researching the large fossil fuel companies whose emissions are driving the climate crisis—including ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron—and sued them.
Jeffrey B. Simon believes the blame lies with the fossil fuel industry. His firm, Simon Greenstone Panatier in Dallas, and their co-counsel are suing more than a dozen companies and industry insiders for $52 billion in damages and future costs for climate adaptation, on behalf of the Oregon county.
The Lever speaks with a lawyer suing the fossil fuel industry for its role in a deadly heatwave. On this week’s episode of Lever Time Premium, exclusively for The Lever’s supporting subscribers, Frank Cappello speaks with lawyer Jeffrey B. Simon, who is suing 17 fossil fuel companies for their contribution to a 2021 heatwave that… Continue reading The Lawyer Suing 17 Fossil Fuel Companies
A state judge’s ruling this month that Montana’s energy project permitting laws violate constitutional rights to a healthy environment is a historic win that highlights how affirmative constitutional climate rights—also called green amendments—can be useful in the legal movement to stem emissions.
The fossil fuel industry is killing our planet. One trial attorney is suing fossil fuel companies for $1.15 billion to protect a community — and everyone.
Enormous harm was caused to this community. Millions of dollars were spent as a result of the loss of life, the property damage, the provision of cooling centers, and all the emergency health services that were necessary for a population where 40 percent of the residents don’t have air cooling systems in their home because… Continue reading We’re Suing Fossil Fuel Companies for $1.15 Billion
Jeffrey B. Simon, attorney representing Multnomah County, Oregon, in a recent lawsuit officials there filed to hold oil and gas companies liable for a heat wave last year that killed 69 people in the county. Simon is the author of the forthcoming book Last Rights, about corporate influence on the justice system.
A county lawyer says the “heat dome of June 2021 is entirely different because it is irrefutably, scientifically caused by carbon pollution.”
