"Big Oil calls Puerto Rico racketeering climate claims 'far-fetched'", 17 Oct 2023

ExxonMobil Corp, Shell, Chevron and other major fossil fuel companies have told a federal judge that a lawsuit filed by Puerto Rican cities and towns seeking to hold them accountable for harms from climate change under an anti-organized crime law is “far-fetched.”

In joint filings on Friday, the companies asked a Puerto Rico federal court to dismiss a 2022 lawsuit filed by 16 municipalities accusing the companies of colluding to publicly downplay the risks of their fossil-fuel products on climate change asking for billions of dollars in damages. The lawsuit says the companies should be held financially responsible for climate-related harms in the U.S. territory...

The companies said the municipalities’ claims under U.S. racketeering and other laws are meritless, and would hold them liable not just for their carbon emissions, but also for “the alleged worldwide impacts of defendants' purported speech and conduct...”

They said their speech is protected under the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and that the causal connection between their efforts to influence public policy and climate harms that the plaintiffs are trying to establish is speculative and attenuated.

“No federal court has ever found such a far-fetched theory to state a claim for relief,” the companies said. “This court should not be the first.”

Counsel for the Puerto Rican municipalities did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

The municipalities alleged in their proposed class action lawsuit in November that the companies' joint efforts to downplay climate concerns violated laws like the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a 1970s law originally passed to battle organized crime syndicates...