Long Island should take Big Oil to court

If the chief prosecutors and legal officers of more than 40 states and municipalities are correct, Long Islanders are the victims of a multibillion-dollar fraud perpetrated by fossil fuel companies when they lied to us about climate change. Now we are suffering the consequences of their deception. Is it possible to hold these giant corporations accountable for climate change? The answer is yes.

New York State has laws against “fraudulent, misleading, and deceptive trade practices.” Businesses cannot claim a product is safe when they know it will do harm. That’s the reason Big Tobacco has paid over $200 billion in damages. The opioid addiction industry has also been held financially accountable in court.

Big Oil engaged in fraud, too. Specifically, going back to the 1970s, Big Oil knew that fossil fuels would lead to global warming. An extensive record of company documents, media investigations, scientific papers and interviews with former oil company workers details the companies' disinformation campaign. Many Big Oil scientists told company officials the truth. But these executives misled the public by raising doubts about climate science. New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin concluded that “they knowingly made false claims to deceive the public about the existence of climate change.” California AG Rob Bonta recently reached that same conclusion and filed its own state-level climate lawsuit. It’s time for the Long Island Power Authority to launch the same kind of lawsuit.

We are paying a high price for Big Oil’s deception. Over 30 years ago, President George H.W. Bush told the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that “the future of the Earth must not be compromised.” He signed legislation mandating a National Climate Assessment to document the impact of climate change. He was able to do little else. Big Oil pushed back hard. These masters of the energy universe could have been real leaders and shifted priorities and investments from fossil fuels to solar and wind. They didn’t. They told us not to worry, they had our backs. But they had their eyes on our wallets and their companies’ short-term profits.

LIPA, the public agency charged with ensuring our electric system is reliable, has been billing us for the costs of climate adaptation. LIPA estimates it has already spent $1.8 billion, including FEMA grants, on storm hardening — such as raising substations and preparing for evermore extreme weather and tidal surges. In 2023, our PSEG bills will include $70 million in climate adaptation charges. These costs are directly attributable to the use of fossil fuels, promoted aggressively by companies like ExxonMobil, Shell and BP.

Cleaning up Big Oil’s destructive mess is costly. Fossil fuel companies made bad decisions that damaged the environment. They should pay that bill, not LIPA ratepayers. LIPA must protect its ratepayers. We, the almost 1.1 million LIPA/PSEG customers, deserve our day in court and LIPA should be our legal representative. Reducing rates is an excellent reason for LIPA to pursue this cost-reduction initiative.

The Green Party of Nassau County, LI Clean Air Water Soil, and the Climate Reality Project (affiliated with former Vice President Al Gore) have asked LIPA to do its due diligence. The fossil fuel companies engaged in fraud, and we are paying dearly in our electric bills. The more we know about fossil fuel company deception, the more necessary and inevitable climate lawsuits become. What are we waiting for? LIPA needs to get busy with this pronto. There’s no time to lose.

This guest essay reflects the views of Merrick resident Fred Harrison, a retired history teacher and member of the Ad Hoc Committee for a LIPA Ratepayers’ Climate Lawsuit.