Rhode Island AG Filed Lawsuit Against Fossil Fuel Companies Over Impacts of Climate Change

JULY 2, 2018

Then-Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin filed a lawsuit in state court against 21 fossil fuel companies, including Chevron Corporation, Exxon Mobil, BP and other major oil producers. The suit advanced eight claims against the fossil fuel companies for producing, promoting and marketing of fossil fuel products, while concealing the known hazards of their products. AG Kilmartin alleged that the 21 companies were directly responsible for the release of hundreds of gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions between 1965 and 2015 that have caused harm that Rhode Island has experienced and will continue to experience in the future. The severe harms include substantial sea level rise, more frequent and severe flooding, extreme precipitation events and drought.

The defendants petitioned for a write of certiorari attempting to move the case to federal court. After the Supreme Court denied the fossil fuel comapnies’ petition in April 2023, then-Attorney General Peter F. Neronha released the following statement: “Rhode Island was the first state to file a climate damage and deception lawsuit, nearly five years ago. We filed in state court because that is the traditional and proper forum to hold corporations accountable for deceiving and failing to warn consumers about their products’ dangerous impacts. Today’s decision marks an important milestone in the proceedings as the Court has again rejected an attempt by major fossil fuel company defendants to move the case to federal court and instead kept the case in state court, where it rightly belongs. After decades of climate change deception by the fossil fuel defendants, and now nearly half a decade of delay tactics in our lawsuit to hold them accountable for it, our residents, workers, businesses and taxpayers are ready for their day in court. Now that the Supreme Court has affirmed the decisions of dozens of federal judges across the country, it is time to prepare for trial.”