“Consumers are aware of global climate change and continue to use oil,” said Wayne Winegarden (a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, a think tank that supports free market solutions to global warming and other environmental issues). “These lawsuits are an underhanded way of the states throwing on carbon taxes without having to take responsibility for it.”
But a far more potent weapon is being deployed against energy companies: A cadre of liberal lawyers, environmental activists, and attorneys general from Democratic states and municipalities are systematically suing energy companies and demanding multibillion-dollar payouts. Their efforts have not risen to a top-tier concern in American politics, but that is about to change: The latest iteration of “lawfare” is now fully deployed and expected to reach critical mass in 2025.
These well-funded lawsuits, and there are now more than 30 of them, are not equivalent to throwing a can of soup at an art masterpiece. The coordinated litigation strategy is nothing less than an attempt to throw a monkey wrench into the industry that makes modern life possible – that heats and cools Americans’ homes and offices, supplies gasoline for transportation and agriculture, and powers the nation’s electric grid.
“In politics, it’s all about who can tell the best story – and the environmental movement tells a compelling story about the costs of climate change,” says Wayne Winegarden… “But the hope that we can run the economy on solar and wind is delusional. We simply don’t have an economy without oil.”
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
Private firms, states use tobacco lawsuit playbook in energy cases
Wayne H Winegarden
“Consumers are aware of global climate change and continue to use oil,” said Wayne Winegarden (a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, a think tank that supports free market solutions to global warming and other environmental issues). “These lawsuits are an underhanded way of the states throwing on carbon taxes without having to take responsibility for it.”
But a far more potent weapon is being deployed against energy companies: A cadre of liberal lawyers, environmental activists, and attorneys general from Democratic states and municipalities are systematically suing energy companies and demanding multibillion-dollar payouts. Their efforts have not risen to a top-tier concern in American politics, but that is about to change: The latest iteration of “lawfare” is now fully deployed and expected to reach critical mass in 2025.
These well-funded lawsuits, and there are now more than 30 of them, are not equivalent to throwing a can of soup at an art masterpiece. The coordinated litigation strategy is nothing less than an attempt to throw a monkey wrench into the industry that makes modern life possible – that heats and cools Americans’ homes and offices, supplies gasoline for transportation and agriculture, and powers the nation’s electric grid.
“In politics, it’s all about who can tell the best story – and the environmental movement tells a compelling story about the costs of climate change,” says Wayne Winegarden… “But the hope that we can run the economy on solar and wind is delusional. We simply don’t have an economy without oil.”
Read the entire article in RealClearPolitics.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.