Oil companies fire back at Rhode Island AG’s virtue-signaling lawsuit

Rhode Island’s attorney general is filing a lawsuit against twenty-one oil and natural gas companies, accusing them of causing climate change and “not sufficiently mitigating its effects,” The Hill reported Monday.

“The defendants have contributed greatly to the increased costs associated with climate change, and as such, should be held legally responsible for those damages,” Inside Sources reported Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin said.

Manufacturers are firing back, however, saying the lawsuit is not really about climate change.

“Lawsuits targeting manufacturers do nothing to address climate change, and as history has demonstrated, these lawsuits stand little chance in the courtroom,” Lindsey de la Torre, executive director of the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Manufacturers’ Accountability Project (MAP) said.

De la Torre suggested that the suit is merely political and a poor usage of taxpayer dollars.

“It’s time for politicians and trial lawyers to put an end to this frivolous litigation. Taxpayer resources should not be used for baseless lawsuits that are designed to enrich trial lawyers and grab headlines for politicians. This abuse of our legal system does nothing to advance meaningful solutions, which manufacturers are focused on every day.”

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