Date: March 26, 2024
Complete Article: Center for Climate Integrity
Excerpt:
Bucks County became the first community in Pennsylvania this week to sue oil companies for their climate deception and destruction, joining a wave of communities across the nation demanding that the fossil fuel industry is held accountable for its climate lies.
“These companies have known since at least the 1950s that their ways of doing business were having calamitous effects on our planet, and rather than change what they were doing or raise the alarm, they lied to all of us,” said Bucks County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo, a Republican. “The taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for these companies and their greed.”
According to the county, the region has suffered three 100-year storms in the span of three years — climate induced disasters that the region didn’t have time to prepare for because of the fossil fuel industry’s lies about the reality of climate change. In July 2023, the county experienced severe flash flooding that killed seven people, including two children.
A study published last year by the Center for Climate Integrity, Resilient Analytics, and Scioto Analysis found that Pennsylvania municipalities faced at least $15 billion in costs to mitigate just eight climate change impacts by 2040. [It] also found that Bucks County faced $955 million to protect its community from a handful of the many climate harms it will face by 2040.