Oregon’s most populous county is suing more than a dozen fossil fuel and coal-producing companies for nearly $52 billion. The county is seeking to hold defendants accountable for damages related to an extreme weather event that it attributes to climate change.
Multnomah County, home to Portland, joins more than two dozen other cities and counties across the nation that are suing fossil fuel firms for their perceived role in causing climate change.
The county is asking for $50 billion in actual damages and $1.5 billion in future damages.
It also wants the defendants to contribute an estimated $50 billion to “study, plan, and upgrade the public health care services and infrastructure to ‘weatherproof’ the county from future extreme heat events and to safeguard the public health,” according to the suit….