New Jersey sues 5 oil companies and trade group over climate disinformation

NJ wants fossil fuel industry to pay for the impacts of climate change

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

Wayne Parry / AP Photo

A front-end loader moves sand on Delaware Bay Beach in Middle Township, NJ that was badly eroded by Superstorm Sandy.

October 18, 2022 | 9:30 PM

New Jersey filed a lawsuit against five oil companies and a trade organization, saying the companies knowingly deceived the public about their contributions to global warming.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said internal industry documents show Exxon Mobil, Shell Oil, Chevron, BP, and ConocoPhillips all hid their knowledge that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change.

“Based on their own research, these companies understood decades ago that their products were causing climate change and would have devastating environmental impacts down the road,” said Platkin in a statement. “It’s long overdue that the facts be aired in a New Jersey court, and the perpetrators of the disinformation campaign pay for the harms they’ve caused.”

The lawsuit alleges the trade group, American Petroleum Institute, designed public relations campaigns aimed at convincing the public that climate change does not exist and creating confusion and doubt about the role of oil and gas.

New Jersey says this drove continued fossil fuel use that has already devastated the state’s coastal communities with rising seas and increasingly severe storms, along with extreme heat.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and the Division of Consumer Affairs joined the Attorney General’s office in filing the complaint in Superior Court in Mercer County.

“Our shore communities have had to rebuild boardwalk landmarks, construct large dunes and devise other engineering solutions to recover from and respond to devastating storms,” said Cari Fais, acting director of the Division of Consumer Affairs.

The complaint alleges the companies violated the Consumer Fraud Act through a disinformation campaign that began in the 1980s. It also says the defendants had a legal obligation to warn consumers about the impacts of fossil fuel use.

A spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute (API) defended the industry’s efforts to cut its carbon emissions and said the lawsuit‘s claims are false.

“The record of the past two decades demonstrates that the industry has achieved its goal of providing affordable, reliable American energy to U.S. consumers while substantially reducing emissions and our environmental footprint,” said API spokesman Scott J. Lauermann.

Citing rising gas prices, a New Jersey business lobby also criticized the lawsuit, claiming it would hurt consumers.

“At a time when gas prices are once again on the rise and America’s energy security is of the utmost concern, it is unsettling that the state has decided to pursue this litigation,” said New Jersey Business and Industry Association lobbyist Ray Cantor. “Energy is essential to our modern economy and our way of life. Reliable, affordable energy runs our factories, heats and cools our homes, and powers our transportation sector.”

The lawsuit seeks an injunction against the companies and API to halt their public relations campaigns along with monetary penalties and damages to help restore protective wetlands and protect residents from future impacts of global warming such as sea level rise and destructive storms.