The Climate Docket

WHAT WE COVER:

  • Liability Litigation
    • Baltimore Lawsuit
    • California Climate Lawsuits
    • Colorado Lawsuit
    • Mass. v. Exxon
    • New York City Lawsuit
    • Rhode Island Lawsuit
    • Other Suits
  • Access to Courts
    • Liability Waivers
    • State Legislation
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

Powered by Genesis

You are here: Home / Liability Litigation / Charleston, S.C. Lawsuit / Charleston, Closed in By Rising Seas, Files Climate Lawsuit Vs. Big Oil
Charleston, Closed in By Rising Seas, Files Climate Lawsuit Vs. Big Oil

Charleston, Closed in By Rising Seas, Files Climate Lawsuit Vs. Big Oil

September 9, 2020 Filed Under: Charleston, S.C. Lawsuit, Liability Litigation

print
By Karen Savage

Charleston, S.C., has become the first southern city to file a climate liability lawsuit to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change deception, impacts and costs.

The city filed the lawsuit on Wednesday against ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Shell, Chevron, Marathon, and several other fossil fuel companies, alleging they have known for decades that their products drive climate change but deliberately have deceived the public, press and policy makers about that harm.

“As this lawsuit shows, these companies have known for more than 50 years that their products were going to cause the worst flooding the world has seen since Noah built the Ark,” Mayor John Tecklenburg said. “Instead of warning us, they covered up the truth and turned our flooding problems into their profits.”

Sea levels are expected to rise an additional 2 to 3 feet by 2070. That will not only increase the city’s vulnerability during storms, but will exacerbate high tide, or sunny day flooding, which happened 89 times during 2019, according to Tecklenburg.

“By the year 2050, it’s estimated that occurrence could happen every other day,” Tecklenburg said, adding it will take an estimated $2 billion to address all the stormwater projects needed to protect Charleston residents. 

The suit, which was filed in state court, includes state law claims of public and private nuisance, strict liability and negligent failure to warn, trespass, and violations of South Carolina’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.

“We’ve been measuring sea level here in the harbor of Charleston for over a hundred years. During that time, sea level rise has risen over a foot. In the last 20 years, with the climate change that’s occurred, and mostly because of the burning of fossil fuels, the rate of increase has quadrupled,” Tecklenburg said at a press conference at the Battery, a landmark seawall and historic park in downtown Charleston.

“That’s why we’re going through major expense here to elevate the Low Battery and eventually we’ll have to protect the entire perimeter of the peninsula and other parts of our city,” Tecklenburg said, as construction continued in the background.

Flooding and other effects of climate change exacerbated by fossil fuel companies are having a disproportionate impact on Charleston’s communities of color and low income communities, attorneys for the city wrote in the complaint, adding that residents often lack the resources, including reliable transportation, “to prepare for extreme weather in advance and will need to use a bigger proportion of their resources to rebuild in the aftermath.”

Charleston suffered extensive flooding when Hurricane Irma roared up the Atlantic coast in 2017, bringing with it a nearly 10-foot tidal surge and more than 7 inches of rain. 

Even lesser storms, which may not require evacuation, can impact the city’s neighborhoods, councilmember Perry K. Waring, chairman of Charleston’s public works committee, said. 

Rising seas, combined with extreme rainfall events, or rain bombs place an enormous strain on the storm water drainage system, he explained.

“When sea level rises and a rain bomb occurs, that pipe is filled with water, so it backs up—it’s like dominoes, it backs up from that river or that creek into your street, into your neighborhood and maybe even into your home,” Waring said, adding that the city is currently engaged in hundreds of millions of dollars of storm water drainage projects.

“It’s not fair to the citizens in Charleston that have to bear the burden, the total cost of these improvements, that are needed because of sea level rise,” Waring said. 

The fossil fuel companies say Charleston’s suit, like dozens of climate change-related lawsuits filed against them by municipalities across the country, are meritless. 

“Legal proceedings like this waste millions of dollars of taxpayer money and do nothing to advance meaningful actions that reduce the risks of climate change,” Exxon spokesperson Casey Norton said in a statement, repeating comments made by the company when Hoboken, N.J., filed a similar lawsuit against it last week. 

“We are working to find real solutions to climate change that are undermined by special-interest-promoted lawsuits designed to punish a few companies in one industry who lawfully deliver affordable, reliable and ever cleaner energy,” Chevron spokesperson Sean Comey said in a statement. 

“There is no evidence Chevron misled the public about climate change. Those claims are false. When plaintiffs were forced to justify those allegations in court, they could not,” Comey said, referring to a 5-hour “climate tutorial” on the current state of climate science held by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who was considering the fate of suits filed by Oakland and San Francisco at the time. Alsup eventually dismissed the suits, however, the suits have since been revived by the Ninth Circuit. 

Charleston officials maintain their claims are supported by scientific evidence and say the fossil fuel companies are responsible for the city’s climate crisis-related harms.

“What we want is these companies to be fair in addressing the damages, frankly, that they know they caused,” Waring said.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Charleston, S.C. Lawsuit, Liability Litigation

Don't Miss a story
Subscribe 
We promise not to spam you. Unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Thanks for subscribing! Please check your email for further instructions.

Trackbacks

  1. Faced with rising seas and other consequences of climate crisis, low-lying Delaware sues 31 fossil fuel companies | Red, Green, and Blue says:
    September 16, 2020 at 6:01 am

    […] came just a day after Charleston, South Carolina took similar action—and, as the Climate Docket reported, became the first U.S. southern city to do so. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg addressed the […]

  2. Why the Supreme Court Waded Into the Climate Liability Battle and What It Could Mean - The Climate Docket says:
    November 3, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    […] A ruling in favor of the companies will also allow for review of similar arguments in the Colorado and California cases, Rhode Island’s case, and potentially in cases more recently filed by Minnesota, D.C., Connecticut, Hoboken, Delaware, and Charleston.  […]

  3. Climate Suits Grew in 2020, Could Clear Huge Hurdle in 2021 - The Climate Docket says:
    December 30, 2020 at 10:08 am

    […] summer turned to fall, Hoboken, Charleston, Delaware, Connecticut, and Maui County each filed similar […]

Don't Miss a story
Subscribe 
We promise not to spam you. Unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Thanks for subscribing! Please check your email for further instructions.

Latest News

Justice Dept. to Argue on Side of Oil Companies in Supreme Court Hearing

By Karen Savage The acting solicitor general will be allowed time to argue in support of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and nearly two dozen other companies next week during oral arguments before … [Read More...]

Recent Posts

  • Colorado Judge Rejects Oil Companies’ Attempt to Move Climate Case
  • Biden’s DOJ Could Help Swing Momentum Around Climate Cases
  • Supreme Court Questions Oil Companies’ Tactics to Shake Climate Cases
  • Will Amy Coney Barrett, Whose Father Was a Shell Attorney for Decades, Recuse from Climate Suit?

Most Popular

  • Climate Case Gets Green Light from European Union Court
  • BP Accused of 'Greenwashing' and Deceiving Public With Renewable Energy Ads
  • Exxon Backs a Modest Carbon Tax, But Knows Only a Strong One Will Slow Climate Change
  • After Opioids, Will Climate Change Be the Next Successful Liability Battle?
  • Study Estimates Seawalls to Protect U.S. Coast Will Cost $400 Billion

Categories

  • Access to Courts
  • Baltimore Lawsuit
  • California Climate Lawsuits
  • Charleston, S.C. Lawsuit
  • Colorado Lawsuit
  • Connecticut Lawsuit
  • Delaware Lawsuit
  • Exxon Climate Investigation
  • Featured
  • Hoboken Lawsuit
  • International
  • Latest News
  • Liability Litigation
  • Liability Waivers
  • Mass. v. Exxon
  • Minnesota Lawsuit
  • New York City Lawsuit
  • Other Suits
  • Politics
  • Rhode Island Lawsuit
  • State Legislation
  • Uncategorized
  • Washington DC Lawsuit

Follow us

  • View climatedocket’s profile on Facebook
  • View climatedocket’s profile on Twitter

RSS

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.