City Sues Oil Companies Over Climate Change

By Corinne Ramey 

New York City filed a lawsuit against five major oil companies, asking for billions of dollars to protect the city from climate change.

"In this litigation, the City seeks to shift the costs of protecting the City from climate change impacts back onto the companies that have done nearly all they could to create this existential threat," said the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The complaint said that "the very climate disruption and injuries that Defendants' scientists and consultants warned them about decades ago have now arrived."

The city filed the suit against oil companies BP PLC, Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

A Shell spokesman said the company believes "climate change is a complex societal challenge that should be addressed through sound government policy and cultural change to drive low-carbon choices for businesses and consumers, not by the courts."

The other four companies didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

San Francisco and Oakland filed similar suits in September against the same five companies.

Write to Corinne Ramey at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 10, 2018 13:13 ET (18:13 GMT)

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