Chevron, Exxon Face Fisheries in Lawsuit Over Climate and Crabs

(Bloomberg) -- West Coast fishermen are suing 30 of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies, including Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp., for their alleged pervasive role in triggering the climate volatility that’s led to fishery closures since 2015.

Key Insights

• Warming ocean temperatures cause harmful algae to multiply, killing Dungeness crabs who eat it and harming fisheries and their communities.
• Taking oil companies to court over climate change is an uphill battle.
• A federal judge dismissed a case filed by California cities suing to force Chevron, Exxon and others to cover the cost of infrastructure needed to safeguard cities from rising sea levels, saying the problem deserved a solution “on a more vast scale” than blaming the companies.
• BP Plc paid $1 billion to Gulf Coast shrimpers, oystermen and seafood processors after a subsea gusher pumped 4 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Get More

• Click here for the complaint

--With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kartikay Mehrotra in San Francisco at kmehrotra2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.