Suing the oil and gas companies for causing climate change is not necessarily a bad thing. But we don’t need everybody and his brother doing it. Some Sierra Club types and a Greta Thornberg or two are all the plaintiffs you need. If the federal EPA wants to hop in, great. Maybe the state utility regulators should participate.
But I have to cringe when I see that the Multnomah County government has to get into the act. That outfit is bungling so many of its core functions that it really ought to stick to the knitting. Busting the chops of the suits at places like NW Natural is all great sport, but given the mess on the streets, the county people don’t deserve that much fun. Plus, it’s costing a bundle, with three different law firms (including one in Texas and another in California) representing the county so far. That tax revenue should be spent on less quixotic pursuits.
On the other side of the fight, a good chunk of the money that will be burned defending the lawsuit will no doubt come out of the pockets of those evil moms and pops who still cook and heat their homes with gas, as they have all their adult lives. They’ll probably get to pay the judgment, too, if the gas company has to fork over big bucks to the Chevy Vegas and Moonlight Beasons of the world. From there, heaven knows what would happen to the money. The county’s demanding $51.5 billion.
Some of us, of course, are paying on both ends.
Meanwhile, some NW Natural customers are bringing a different lawsuit, a class action, claiming that the gas company’s “Smart Energy” program is phony. It doesn’t really help the planet, these kids say. The court action casts a harsh light on what the frackheads’ “Smart Energy” deal actually does and doesn’t accomplish. To the plaintiffs, it’s “greenwash.”
I always laugh when I get the pitches for a similar “program” from Pacific Power, asking me to volunteer to pay them more so that they will clean up their act. Straight into the recycling bin the solicitations go. For a while, they were even sending some fairly pushy young people door to door trying to sell me the “clean,” “smart,” and of course more expensive, electricity. Like I told them, I’m all for cleaner power. The state should require it, and the shareholders of Pacific Power should pay for it out of their dividends. Now get off my lawn.
What ever happened to the troublemakers who were always trying to get the local energy companies turned into public utility districts, like they have in a lot of Washington State? Instead of filing lawsuits, maybe the greenies should crank those efforts up again.