US county sues oil cos for $51bn over ‘Heat Dome’ disaster

WASHINGTON: A county in the northwestern state of Oregon on Thursday filed a lawsuit against major fossil fuel companies seeking more than $51 billion over the 2021 “Heat Dome,” one of the United States’ deadliest weather-related disasters.

Multnomah County, which encompasses the state’s most populous city Portland, said combined historic carbon pollution from use of the companies’ products — and their decision to mislead the public about their impacts — was a big factor in exacerbating the heat wave. “This is an event that is directly attributed to the impacts that we are seeing on our climate because of the actions of fossil fuel companies and their agencies that have been pressing for decades to deny climate science,” County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson told AFP.

The county is asking for $50 million in current damages from the Heat Dome, and $1.5 billion for future damages as extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and smoky skies become more common.

It also wants a much larger sum — $50 billion — for a longer term “abatement fund” to upgrade and “climatize” the county’s infrastructure. The record-breaking heat wave baked the western United States and Canada from late June to mid-July 2021, causing a peak temperature of 121.3 degrees Fahrenheit (49.6 degrees Celsius) in Lytton, British Columbia and leading to an estimated 1,400 deaths.

A peer-reviewed analysis by the World Weather Attribution group said the phenomenon would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.

Global warming combined with a dense high-pressure system that hovered over the Pacific Northwest to create a convection-oven effect over the normally mild region. Multnomah County’s suit names major oil firms including ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and BP, but also the American Petroleum Institute and Western States Petroleum Association trade groups, as well as consultancy McKinsey & Company.

It asserts that over the course of three days starting June 25, 2021, the county was scorched by record highs peaking at 116F (46.7C), causing the deaths of 69 people, extensive property damage, and the significant expenditure of taxpayer money.