The city and county of Santa Cruz has joined a growing number of communities suing oil companies over climate change, alleging... the fossil fuel industry long concealed the dangers of its products from consumers.

The two lawsuits, filed Wednesday, blame the use and combustion of oil, gas and coal for accelerating sea level rise and threatening hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to the famously dramatic and much visited Santa Cruz County coast.

While the challenge is similar to other suits recently filed by waterfront communities in California... the new cases in Santa Cruz County Superior Court go a step further. They seek to recoup not only the costs of rising seas but of other climate-related events, including big storms, widlfires and drought.