Maine Joins States Suing Big Oil to Recover Costs of Climate Change ‘Deception’

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has filed suit in state court against Exxon, Shell, Chevron, BP, Sunoco, and the American Petroleum Institute for allegedly “deceiving Mainers for decades about the role of their fossil fuel products in causing climate change.”

The state seeks to hold the oil firms accountable for failing to warn Mainers and concealing their knowledge about the “consequences of the increasing use of fossil fuels on Maine’s people, economy, and environment.”

The state is asking that the court require the energy companies to pay for both past and future climate harms and to force them to “cease their ongoing deception.” The state seeks relief through damages, penalties, abatement, and disgorgement of profits.

Over the past five years, more than 20 states, tribes, cities, and counties have brought similar climate deception lawsuits to date, including the states of New Jersey, California, Delaware, Minnesota, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia. Cities that have sued include Annapolis, Baltimore, Charleston, and Chicago.

The Maine lawsuit contends that the conduct has resulted in enormous financial burdens, public health impacts, property damage and other harms across Maine as a result of extreme weather, sea-level rise, and warmer temperatures. The complaint further alleges that the oil companies knew about the potentially catastrophic consequences fossil fuels cause as early as the 1960s, but rather than warn the public, they protected their own assets from climate change impacts and deployed public relations campaigns to discredit the scientific consensus on climate change and delay the transition to a lower-carbon future.

“For over half a century, these companies chose to fuel profits instead of following their science to prevent what are now likely irreversible, catastrophic climate effects,” said Frey. “In so doing, they burdened the State and our citizens with the consequences of their greed and deception.”

Frey’s complaint alleges seven violations of Maine law, including failure to warn, negligence, nuisance, trespass, and unfair trade practices. It also alleges that the American Petroleum Institute “aided and abetted” the fossil fuel companies’ deception.

Oil companies have denied the allegations in this and similar suits and argued that energy policy should not be decided in courts.

In a statement to Insurance Journal, the Shell Group said that it agrees that “action is needed now on climate change” and it fully supports the need for society to “transition to a lower-carbon future.” However, Shell continued, addressing climate change requires a “collaborative, society-wide approach” and it does “not believe the courtroom is the right venue to address climate change.”

Exxon Mobil told the New York Times that Maine’s actions “ignore the state’s historic dependence on oil and natural gas, do nothing to address the risks of climate change and waste taxpayer dollars.”

Oil companies have also pursued a legal strategy of trying to move the lawsuits from state to federal courts where they believe they would fare better. While that strategy has stalled much of the litigation, several federal courts have affirmed that the cases belong in state courts. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Minnesota’s lawsuit may proceed in state court.

Maine itself was the target of a climate lawsuit filed earlier this year. A suit filed by Maine Youth Action, the Conservation Law Foundation and the Sierra Club claims the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is under an “existing and ongoing statutory obligation” to reduce emissions and has failed to do so.