Liberal US judges under influence of big oil companies: Analyst
Even the most liberal courts in the United States side with big oil companies, an author and geopolitical analyst says, pointing to a dismissed climate change lawsuit against five oil giants by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland.
In an interview with Press TV on Tuesday, Dean Henderson the author of various books including “Big oil & their bankers in the Persian Gulf” said the verdict is a “telling case” of the climate of US politics where a supposedly liberal judge appointed by Bill Clinton dismisses an obvious case of environmental damage by big oil companies.
“The interesting thing is that all parties in the suite agreed to the science of it, so basically they are admitting they are causing global warming and yet they say we need a bigger venue, this not the appropriate place.”
Henderson said the case is not “surprising" since from the time of [former US President Ronald] Regan, the courts have been stacked with “corporate reactionary appointees” which are “under the thumb” of big oil.
“So now we have reached this critical point where pretty much all the judges in this country are going to decide in favor of the corporations and not the people,” Henderson concluded.
Case dismissed
Chevron, Exxon Mobil Corp, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and BP Plc were sued by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland last year.
The cities sought an abatement fund to help them address flooding caused by climate change.
Judge Alsup said the dangers highlighted by the complainants are real and that both parties accepted the science behind global warming.
"(However), the problem deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a District Judge or jury in a public nuisance case," Alsup said.
A Shell spokeswoman called climate change a complex problem, which should not be tackled by the courts but it requires sound government policy. BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil did not comment on the issue.
Trump and Liberals on the same boat?
While liberal courts have sided with big oil, US President Donald Trump has labeled climate change a hoax, defying widening international support for the Paris agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He has argued that the concept of global warming has been “created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.”
In June last year, Trump announced that he would pull the United States out of the 2015 global agreement to fight climate change, characterizing the decision as "a reassertion of American sovereignty."
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