Blog Assignment 7

 Two California Cities Take Initiative to Fight Climate Change

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In 2018, two cities, San Francisco and Oakland, were engaged in a lawsuit vs. some major fossil fuel companies. As the article, Judge Dismisses Suit Against Oil Companies Over Climate Change Costs, describes, the judge threw the lawsuit out- citing that the court is not the place to handle matters such as climate change (Schwartz, 2018). While it was not particularly successful, I still think that this was a good example of cities trying to take the initiative on climate change, without a state forcing them to do so.

 

In this case, the California cities wanted the defendants (companies such as BP, Exxon Mobil, and Shell), to help pay for the costs of dealing with climate change (Schwartz, 2018). If it hadn’t been for the cities’ defeat, they would have made these companies pay for projects such as protecting coastlines from flooding. While this particular case was unsuccessful, it, reportedly, did encourage other cities to engage in similar lawsuits, such as NYC (Schwartz, 2018). 

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Interestingly enough, while this issue started with cities, and not the states, the judge determined that it should be up to the executive and legislative branches to sort out this issue- definitely making it a bottom-up situation.

References:

Schwartz, J. (2018, June 26). Judge Dismisses Suit Against Oil Companies Over Climate Change Costs. The New York Times. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/climate/climate-change-lawsuit-san-francisco-oakland.html?searchResultPosition=4