Charging Oil Firms With Homicide Would Not Be Unreasonable, Lawyers Say

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Prosecutors in Arizona could reasonably press homicide charges against Big Oil for deaths caused by a July 2023 heatwave, lawyers wrote in a new prosecution memorandum. “[T]he case for prosecuting fossil fuel companies for climate-related deaths is strong enough to merit the initiation of investigations by state and local prosecutors,” the document says. The memo, published by the consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen on Wednesday, concludes that the state could pursue reckless manslaughter or second-degree murder claims for the extreme weather event that killed hundreds of residents and which climate scientists found would have been “virtually impossible” but for the climate crisis, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. Victims of the heatwave were diverse, the memo’s authors write. “Some were homeless, like the man who died after breaking both legs jumping over a fence in a desperate attempt to find shade outside an elementary school; others were well off, like the woman who died in her $1 million home in Scottsdale,” the memo says, adding that while some victims were older and had pre-existing health conditions, the authors write, others were young and healthy. The research comes as Arizona and many other US states have broiled under extreme temperatures this month. “As Americans reeled from another lethal heatwave last week, it’s important to remember that these climate disasters didn’t come out of nowhere,” said Aaron Regunberg, senior policy counsel with Public Citizen’s climate program and co-author of the report.

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Charging Oil Firms With Homicide Would Not Be Unreasonable, Lawyers Say

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