Bill Text: NJ AR75 | 2020-2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges Governor and AG to pursue legal action against fossil fuel companies for harms caused by climate change.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-14 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee [AR75 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2020-AR75-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
219th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2020 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JOHN F. MCKEON
District 27 (Essex and Morris)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblyman Holley
SYNOPSIS
Urges Governor and AG to pursue legal action against fossil fuel companies for harms caused by climate change.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Assembly Resolution urging Governor Murphy and Attorney General Grewal to pursue legal action against fossil fuel companies for the harms caused by climate change.
Whereas, On January 9, 2018 the City of New York filed a lawsuit for damages against companies that produce, market, sell, and profit from the sale of fossil fuels, including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Shell, under public nuisance, private nuisance, and trespass claims; and
Whereas, Fossil fuel companies have produced, marketed, and sold massive quantities of fossil fuels, primarily oil and natural gas, despite knowing that the combustion and use of fossil fuels emit greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, and these companies have also known for decades that greenhouse gas pollution accumulates and remains in the atmosphere for up to hundreds of years, where it traps heat, a process commonly referred to as "climate change" or "global warming"; and
Whereas, Fossil fuel companies continue to this day to produce, market, and sell massive amounts of fossil fuels and plan to continue doing so for decades into the future; and
Whereas, According to peer-reviewed research, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Shell are the five largest, investor-owned producers of fossil fuels in the world, as measured by the cumulative carbon and methane pollution generated from the use of their fossil fuels; and
Whereas, Those five fossil fuel companies are collectively responsible for over 11 percent of all the carbon and methane pollution from industrial sources that has accumulated in the atmosphere since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution; and
Whereas, Only 100 fossil fuel producers are responsible for 62 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and for 71 percent of emissions since 1988, and that over 90 percent of these emissions are attributable to the fossil fuels that they produce and sell, rather than those they emit from their own operations; and
Whereas, Fossil fuel companies knew decades ago that the fossil fuel products they produce and sell were altering the atmosphere and would cause dire global warming impacts; and
Whereas, These companies acted on this knowledge to protect their own infrastructure and assets, and yet they told the public a very different story; and
Whereas,
Fossil fuel companies knew that averting dangerous climate change required
reducing the use of their fossil fuel products, and were warned by industry
scientists in stark terms that fossil fuel use risked "catastrophic" harm from
global warming over the coming decades; and
Whereas, Fossil fuel companies and their representatives knew that reductions in fossil fuel usage would result in the immediate problem being considerably eased, questioned the long-term future of fossil fuel use, and discussed internally the technical implications of energy source changeover; and
Whereas, The past and ongoing conduct of fossil fuel companies causes and exacerbates global warming and all of its impacts, including hotter temperatures, longer and more severe heat waves, extreme precipitation events, including heavy downpours, rising sea levels, and other severe and irreversible harms; and
Whereas, Any corporation that makes a product that causes severe harm when used as intended should shoulder the costs of abating that harm; and
Whereas, Like the City of New York, the State of New Jersey has already suffered damage from climate change, including inundation, erosion, and regular tidal flooding of its property, and faces further imminent threats to its property, its infrastructure, and the health and safety of its residents; and
Whereas, The State of New Jersey, and its residents, will continue to see additional harms and damage from climate change in the coming decades, harms related to damage from more intense superstorms and other extreme weather events, additional flooding and coastal erosion, more severe heatwaves and associated increases to energy and medical costs, increased medical costs associated with projected increases in childhood asthma rates, increased volatility in agriculture and aquaculture yields, and additional costs associated with responding to and mitigating the calamitous impacts of climate change; and
Whereas, The State of New Jersey should take all appropriate legal action to protect the State from climate change impacts by shifting costs associated with climate change back onto the companies that have done nearly all they could to create climate change and the associated existential threats posed by its impacts; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. This House urges Governor Murphy and Attorney General Grewal to join the City of New York in pursuing all appropriate legal action against fossil fuel companies, in order to shift the past and projected costs associated with the harms caused by climate change onto the companies that have created those harms.
2. Copies of this
resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the
Clerk of the General Assembly to Governor Murphy and to Attorney General Grewal.
STATEMENT
This resolution urges Governor Murphy and Attorney General Grewal to join the City of New York in pursuing all appropriate legal action against fossil fuel companies, in order to shift the past and projected costs associated with the harms caused by climate change onto the companies responsible for causing those harms.
On January 9, 2018 the City of New York filed a lawsuit for damages against companies that produce, market, sell, and profit from the sale of fossil fuels, under public nuisance, private nuisance, and trespass claims. Fossil fuel companies, including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Shell, have produced, marketed, and sold massive quantities of fossil fuels despite knowing that the combustion and use of fossil fuels emit greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide. Those fossil fuel companies have known for decades that greenhouse gas pollution accumulates and remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, where it traps heat, causing climate change, which has caused grave harms to this State.
The past and ongoing conduct of fossil fuel companies causes and exacerbates climate change and all of its impacts, including hotter temperatures, longer and more severe heat waves, extreme precipitation events, including heavy downpours, rising sea levels, and other severe and irreversible harms. The State of New Jersey has already suffered damage from climate change, including inundation, erosion, and regular tidal flooding of its property, and the State faces further imminent threats to its property, its infrastructure, and the health and safety of its residents.
Governor Murphy and Attorney General Grewal should take legal action to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the severe harms caused by the use of their products, used exactly as intended, especially since those companies downplayed the risks of climate change to the general public while continuing to produce, market, and sell products that they knew were causing these harms.
