SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A preview image of a billboard that's set to appear in Times Square on September 18, 2023.
(Photo: Make Polluters Pay Campaign)
New 'Make Polluters Pay' Campaign Pushes States—and Biden DOJ—to Sue Big Oil
"It's time to come together and finally hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the damage they've done."
Sep 17, 2023
Shortly after California sued five fossil fuel giants over their decades of climate deception and damage, activists on Saturday announced the launch of a new campaign aimed at pressuring the Biden Justice Department and state attorneys general across the U.S. to join the growing legal fight against Big Oil.
The "Make Polluters Pay" campaign is set to formally kick off Monday with a billboard display in Times Square and a six-figure digital ad buy designed to build public support for lawsuits against leading oil and gas firms, which knew about the link between their products and climate change long before they publicly acknowledged it.
"Climate change isn't just a tragedy, it's a crime," said Jamie Henn, founder of Fossil Free Media, one of the groups behind the new campaign. "Fossil fuel companies knew, they lied, and now it's time to make them pay. Right now, billions of us around the world are experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis firsthand. It's time to come together and finally hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the damage they've done."
Dozens of U.S. counties, cities, and states have sued fossil fuel companies in recent years over the destruction wreaked by oil, gas, and coal projects, which remain a dire threat to global efforts to limit planetary warming and prevent the kinds of catastrophic weather events the world has seen in recent months from becoming even more intense and deadly.
On Friday, California became the largest economy in the world to take legal action against the fossil fuel industry, suing ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute for engaging in a "multidecade, ongoing campaign to seek endless profits at the expense of our planet."
The new pressure campaign, modeled after the national effort to inform the public about the threat of tobacco, hopes to push other states—and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland—to follow in California's footsteps.
"Knowingly wrecking the climate is criminal," Leah Qusba of Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) said in a statement. "Make no mistake—they will pay for losses and damages."
The campaign is set to launch ahead of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres' Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday.
The summit, billed as a "no-nonsense" effort to generate more aggressive action plans to phase out planet-warming energy, will be preceded by hundreds mass demonstrations across the globe imploring U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders to "end fossil fuels."
The protests will culminate in the "March to End Fossil Fuels" in New York City on Sunday afternoon.
"Big Oil owes us for the lives and livelihoods lost to climate change-linked extreme weather, illness, and death," said Alex Witt, the senior adviser for oil and gas at Climate Power. "The industry's C-suite has known for decades the horrific impact oil and gas have on the climate, and they kept drilling. That's not just negligent; it's reprehensible."
"The tide has turned against Big Oil," Witt added, "and they know it."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Shortly after California sued five fossil fuel giants over their decades of climate deception and damage, activists on Saturday announced the launch of a new campaign aimed at pressuring the Biden Justice Department and state attorneys general across the U.S. to join the growing legal fight against Big Oil.
The "Make Polluters Pay" campaign is set to formally kick off Monday with a billboard display in Times Square and a six-figure digital ad buy designed to build public support for lawsuits against leading oil and gas firms, which knew about the link between their products and climate change long before they publicly acknowledged it.
"Climate change isn't just a tragedy, it's a crime," said Jamie Henn, founder of Fossil Free Media, one of the groups behind the new campaign. "Fossil fuel companies knew, they lied, and now it's time to make them pay. Right now, billions of us around the world are experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis firsthand. It's time to come together and finally hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the damage they've done."
Dozens of U.S. counties, cities, and states have sued fossil fuel companies in recent years over the destruction wreaked by oil, gas, and coal projects, which remain a dire threat to global efforts to limit planetary warming and prevent the kinds of catastrophic weather events the world has seen in recent months from becoming even more intense and deadly.
On Friday, California became the largest economy in the world to take legal action against the fossil fuel industry, suing ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute for engaging in a "multidecade, ongoing campaign to seek endless profits at the expense of our planet."
The new pressure campaign, modeled after the national effort to inform the public about the threat of tobacco, hopes to push other states—and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland—to follow in California's footsteps.
"Knowingly wrecking the climate is criminal," Leah Qusba of Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) said in a statement. "Make no mistake—they will pay for losses and damages."
The campaign is set to launch ahead of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres' Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday.
The summit, billed as a "no-nonsense" effort to generate more aggressive action plans to phase out planet-warming energy, will be preceded by hundreds mass demonstrations across the globe imploring U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders to "end fossil fuels."
The protests will culminate in the "March to End Fossil Fuels" in New York City on Sunday afternoon.
"Big Oil owes us for the lives and livelihoods lost to climate change-linked extreme weather, illness, and death," said Alex Witt, the senior adviser for oil and gas at Climate Power. "The industry's C-suite has known for decades the horrific impact oil and gas have on the climate, and they kept drilling. That's not just negligent; it's reprehensible."
"The tide has turned against Big Oil," Witt added, "and they know it."
Shortly after California sued five fossil fuel giants over their decades of climate deception and damage, activists on Saturday announced the launch of a new campaign aimed at pressuring the Biden Justice Department and state attorneys general across the U.S. to join the growing legal fight against Big Oil.
The "Make Polluters Pay" campaign is set to formally kick off Monday with a billboard display in Times Square and a six-figure digital ad buy designed to build public support for lawsuits against leading oil and gas firms, which knew about the link between their products and climate change long before they publicly acknowledged it.
"Climate change isn't just a tragedy, it's a crime," said Jamie Henn, founder of Fossil Free Media, one of the groups behind the new campaign. "Fossil fuel companies knew, they lied, and now it's time to make them pay. Right now, billions of us around the world are experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis firsthand. It's time to come together and finally hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the damage they've done."
Dozens of U.S. counties, cities, and states have sued fossil fuel companies in recent years over the destruction wreaked by oil, gas, and coal projects, which remain a dire threat to global efforts to limit planetary warming and prevent the kinds of catastrophic weather events the world has seen in recent months from becoming even more intense and deadly.
On Friday, California became the largest economy in the world to take legal action against the fossil fuel industry, suing ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute for engaging in a "multidecade, ongoing campaign to seek endless profits at the expense of our planet."
The new pressure campaign, modeled after the national effort to inform the public about the threat of tobacco, hopes to push other states—and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland—to follow in California's footsteps.
"Knowingly wrecking the climate is criminal," Leah Qusba of Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) said in a statement. "Make no mistake—they will pay for losses and damages."
The campaign is set to launch ahead of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres' Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday.
The summit, billed as a "no-nonsense" effort to generate more aggressive action plans to phase out planet-warming energy, will be preceded by hundreds mass demonstrations across the globe imploring U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders to "end fossil fuels."
The protests will culminate in the "March to End Fossil Fuels" in New York City on Sunday afternoon.
"Big Oil owes us for the lives and livelihoods lost to climate change-linked extreme weather, illness, and death," said Alex Witt, the senior adviser for oil and gas at Climate Power. "The industry's C-suite has known for decades the horrific impact oil and gas have on the climate, and they kept drilling. That's not just negligent; it's reprehensible."
"The tide has turned against Big Oil," Witt added, "and they know it."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.