Oregon's most populous county adds gas utility to $51B climate suit against fossil fuel companies

News

Oregon's most populous county adds gas utility to $51B climate suit against fossil fuel companies

2024-10-12 05:53 Last Updated At：06:01

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon's Multnomah County, home to Portland, has added the state's largest natural gas utility to its $51.5 billion climate lawsuit against fossil fuel companies over their role in the region's deadly 2021 heat- dome event.

The lawsuit, filed last year, accuses the companies’ carbon emissions of being a cause of the heat-dome event, which shattered temperature records across the Pacific Northwest. About 800 people died in Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia in the heat wave, which hit in late June and early July 2021.

An amended complaint was filed this week, adding NW Natural to a lawsuit that already named oil giants such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell as defendants. It accuses NW Natural, which provides gas to about 2 million people across the Pacific Northwest, of being responsible for “a substantial portion” of greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon and deceiving the public about the harm of such emissions.

NW Natural said it can't comment in detail until it has completed reviewing the claims.

"However, NW Natural believes that these new claims are an attempt to divert attention from legal and factual laws in the case. NW Natural will vigorously contest the County’s claims should they come to court," it said in an emailed statement.

According to the Center for Climate Integrity, it is the first time a gas utility has been named in a lawsuit accusing fossil fuel companies of climate deception. There are currently over two dozen such lawsuits that have been filed by state, local and tribal governments across the U.S., according to the group.

The amended complaint also added the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, which describes itself as a research group on its website, to the lawsuit. The group has opposed the concept of human-caused global warming. A request for comment sent Friday to the email address on its website was returned to sender.

Multnomah County is seeking $51.5 billion in damages, largely for what it estimates to be the cost of responding to the effects of extreme heat, wildfire and drought.

“We’re already paying dearly in Multnomah County for our climate crisis — with our tax dollars, with our health and with our lives," county chair Jessica Vega Pederson said in a statement. “Going forward we have to strengthen our safety net just to keep people safe.”

After the initial complaint was filed last year, ExxonMobil said the lawsuit didn't address climate change, while a Chevron lawyer said the claims were baseless.

When contacted for comment Friday, Shell said it was working to reduce its emissions.

“Addressing climate change requires a collaborative, society-wide approach,” it said in an emailed statement. “We do not believe the courtroom is the right venue to address climate change, but that smart policy from government and action from all sectors is the appropriate way to reach solutions and drive progress.”

The case is pending in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Trump drives his anti-immigration message in Aurora, Colorado

2024-10-12 05:56 Last Updated At：06:00

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Donald Trump detoured from the battleground states Friday to visit a Colorado suburb that's been in the news over illegal immigration as he drives a message, often using false or misleading claims and dehumanizing language, that migrants are causing chaos in smaller American cities and towns.

Trump’s rally in Aurora marked the first time ahead of the November election that either presidential campaign has visited Colorado, which reliably votes Democratic statewide.

The Republican nominee has long promised to stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and has made immigration core to his political persona since the day he launched his first campaign in 2015. Over the last few months, Trump has pinpointed specific smaller communities that have seen large arrivals of migrants, with tensions flaring locally over resources and some longtime residents expressing distrust about sudden demographic changes.

Aurora entered the spotlight in August when a video circulated showing armed men walking through an apartment building housing Venezuelan migrants. Trump has claimed extensively that Venezuelan gangs are taking over buildings, even though authorities say that was a single block of the suburb near Denver, and the area is again safe.

Ignoring those denials from local authorities, Trump painted a picture of apartment complexes overrun by “barbaric thugs" and streets unsafe to travel, blaming President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic rival.

“They're ruining your state,” Trump said of the Democrats in the White House.

“No person who has inflicted the violence and terror that Kamala Harris has inflicted on this community can ever be allowed to become the president of the United States,” Trump added.

Trump often used dehumanizing language, referring to his political rivals as “scum” who are destroying “the fabric of your culture” and to migrants as “ animals " who have “invaded and conquered” Aurora. The town is “infected by Venezuela,” he said.

“We have to clean out our country,” Trump said. And he reprised the first controversy of his career in politics, when he launched his 2016 campaign by saying migrants are rapists and bring drugs and crime.

“I took a lot of heat for saying it, but I was right," Trump said Friday, repeating the false claim that other countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions and dumping their worst criminals in the United States.

To thunderous applause, he called for the death penalty "for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.”

Trump announced that as president he'd launch “Operation Aurora” to focus on deporting members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, or TDA. The violent gang traces its origins more than a decade to an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals.

Trump also repeated his pledge to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen who is from a country that the U.S. is at war with.

In July, the Biden administration issued a sanction against the gang and offered $12 million in rewards for the arrest of three leaders.

Aurora resident Jodie Powell, a 54-year-old Republican, rejected Trump’s claims that Venezuelan gangs had taken over the city.

“That’s not the case,” said Powell, her bangs poking out below a white cap stamped with “Make America Great Again.” Still, Powell said, she’s seen an increase in crime she associates with newcomers, citing a police chase that ended at a store where she was shopping.

“It takes a small amount of people to make a big difference in the community,” said Powell, who ranks immigration as her top concern alongside the economy. “It’s scary, it’s a scary thing.”

At the venue where he appeared on Friday, posters displayed mug shots of people in prison-orange with descriptions including “Illegal immigrant gang members from Venezuela.”

“Look at all these photos around me," Stephen Miller, a former top aide who is expected to take a senior role in the White House if Trump wins, told the crowd before Trump spoke. “Are these the kids you grew up with? Are these the neighbors you were raised with? Are these the neighbors that you want in your city?” The crowd roared ”no" in reply.

Some of Colorado’s Democratic leaders accused Trump and other Republicans of overstating problems in Aurora.

“What is occurring is minimal and isolated. And to be clear, it’s never acceptable, right? We never say any level is acceptable,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. “But it’s not a surge. It’s not a change. There is no takeover of any part of this city, of any apartment complex. It has not happened. It is a lie.”

Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also have spread falsehoods about a community in Springfield, Ohio, where they said Haitian immigrants were accused of stealing and eating pets.

While Ohio and Colorado are not competitive in the presidential race, the Republican message on immigration is intended for states that are. Vance campaigned recently in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a city of 70,000 that has resettled refugees from Africa and Asia, and touted Trump's plan to ramp up deportations. He argues smaller communities have been “overrun” by immigrants taxing local resources.

Trump has vowed to deport not only “criminals,” a promise he shares with Harris, but also Haitians living legally in Springfield and even people he has denigrated as “pro-Hamas radicals” protesting on college campuses. Trump has said he would revoke the temporary protected status that allows Haitians to stay in the U.S. because of widespread poverty and violence in their home nation.

Harris has tacked to the right on immigration, presenting herself as a candidate who can be tough on policing the border, which is perceived as one of her biggest vulnerabilities.

She wrapped up a three-day western swing with a campaign event Friday in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Harris said she would create a bipartisan council of advisers to provide feedback on her policy initiatives if she makes it to the White House.

“I love good ideas wherever they come from,” said Harris, who is making a push to get Republicans with doubts about Trump to support her.

She also accused Trump of letting Iran “off the hook” while he was in office and made her case that she would be a greater champion for Israel’s security than the Republican nominee.

“Make no mistake, as president, I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend American forces and interests from Iran and Iran-backed terrorists,” Harris said in a call with Jewish supporters ahead of Yom Kippur. “And I will never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. Diplomacy is my preferred path to that end. But all options are on the table.”

Harris charged that Trump “did nothing” after Iranian-backed militias attacked U.S. bases and American troops.

But Trump in fact during his time in office had ordered strikes against Iranian backed militias as well as a January 2020 operation that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force.

Harris participated virtually in a White House briefing with President Biden on the recovery effort from hurricanes Milton and Helene. She sought to reassure those who endured losses from the hurricane that they would get help from the government.

Gomez reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed.

Oregon's most populous county adds gas utility to $51B climate suit against fossil fuel companies

News

Oregon's most populous county adds gas utility to $51B climate suit against fossil fuel companies

Next Article

Trump drives his anti-immigration message in Aurora, Colorado

Residents slog through flooded streets, clear debris after Hurricane Milton tore through Florida

Fisher-Price recalls over 2 million ‘Snuga Swings’ following the deaths of 5 infants

‘The View’ abortion ad signals wider effort to use an FCC regulation to spread a message

An elevator malfunction killed 1 and trapped 12 at a Colorado tourist mine

Giants and Bengals are both trying to overcome slow starts heading into a Sunday night showdown

Boeing will lay off 10% of its employees as a strike by factory workers cripples airplane production

Giants will look for their first win of the season at home against the Bengals on Sunday night