USA: Climate Pollution New York City Sues Exxon, Shell, BP for Alleged Climate Lies

New York City has sued oil majors Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and the lobby group – American Petroleum Institute for misleading advertising and deceptive business practices. The corporations systematically misrepresented their role in climate pollution through PR campaigns, Mayor of New York city Bill de Blasio announced recently.

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New York City /USA – "The companies are among the biggest polluters but promote their products as "greener" and "cleaner," complained Lorelei Salas of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Oil companies should not be allowed to profit from this scam, she said. The city is demanding that the alleged illegal ‘greenwashing’ be banned and that the companies pay penalties.

The head of the American Petroleum Institute's legal department, Paul Afonso, called the lawsuit "baseless" in U.S. media. An Exxon spokesman pointed to an earlier New York lawsuit over alleged climate change misstatements, in which the oil company was acquitted in 2019. Such lawsuits would do nothing meaningful to solve environmental problems, the spokesman said. Comments from BP and Shell were not available.

Environmentalists have long demanded stricter climate targets from companies in the industry. Exxon, for example, said it complied at the end of 2020 and considered itself in line with the Paris climate agreement. However, the targets relate to emissions intensity, which is not about absolute reductions in greenhouse gases. As a result, emissions of environmentally harmful gases could well continue to rise in the future as oil production increases.

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