In the Superior Court of the State of Delaware
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
EFiled: Sep 10 2020 11:31AM EDT Transaction ID 65917326 Case No. N20C-09-097 AML CCLD IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE STATE OF DELAWARE, ex rel. KATHLEEN JENNINGS, Attorney General of the State of Delaware, C.A. No. __________ CCLD Plaintiff, v. BP AMERICA INC., BP P.L.C., CHEVRON CORPORATION, CHEVRON U.S.A. INC., CONOCOPHILLIPS, CONOCOPHILLIPS COMPANY, PHILLIPS 66, PHILLIPS 66 TRIAL BY JURY OF 12 COMPANY, EXXON MOBIL DEMANDED CORPORATION, EXXONMOBIL OIL CORPORATION, XTO ENERGY INC., HESS CORPORATION, MARATHON COMPLAINT OIL CORPORATION, MARATHON OIL COMPANY, MARATHON PETROLEUM CORPORATION, MARATHON PETROLEUM COMPANY LP, SPEEDWAY LLC, MURPHY OIL CORPORATION, MURPHY USA INC., ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, SHELL OIL COMPANY, CITGO PETROLEUM CORPORATION, TOTAL S.A., TOTAL SPECIALTIES USA INC., OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION, DEVON ENERGY CORPORATION, APACHE CORPORATION, CNX RESOURCES CORPORATION, CONSOL ENERGY INC., OVINTIV, INC., and AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE, Defendants. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................1 II. PARTIES ........................................................................................................9 A. Plaintiff ............................................................................................................9 B. Defendants .....................................................................................................10 C. Relevant Non-Parties: Defendants’ Agents and Front Groups .....................58 III. JURISDICTION ..........................................................................................61 IV. FACTUAL BACKGROUND......................................................................64 A. Defendants Are Responsible for Causing and Accelerating Climate Change. ..........................................................................................................64 B. Defendants Went to Great Lengths to Understand, and Either Knew or Should Have Known About, the Dangers Associated with Their Fossil Fuel Products. ......................................................................................70 C. Defendants Did Not Disclose Known Harms Associated with the Extraction, Promotion, and Consumption of Their Fossil Fuel Products, and Instead Affirmatively Acted to Obscure Those Harms and Engaged in a Campaign to Deceptively Protect and Expand the Use of their Fossil Fuel Products. ..........................................................104 D. In Contrast to Their Public Statements, Defendants’ Internal Actions Demonstrate Their Awareness of and Intent to Profit from the Unabated Use of Fossil Fuel Products. ........................................................132 E. Defendants’ Actions Have Exacerbated the Costs of Adapting to and Mitigating the Adverse Impacts of the Climate Crisis. ........................135 F. Defendants Continue to Mislead About the Impact of Their Fossil Fuel Products on Climate Change Through Greenwashing Campaigns and Other Misleading Advertisements in Delaware and Elsewhere. ..........149 i. Exxon’s Misleading and Deceptive Greenwashing Campaigns ..........156 ii. Shell’s Misleading and Deceptive Greenwashing Campaigns ............159 i iii. BP’s Misleading and Deceptive Greenwashing Campaigns ...............161 iv. Chevron’s Misleading and Deceptive Greenwashing Campaigns ............................................................................................164 v. Marathon’s Misleading and Deceptive Greenwashing Campaigns ............................................................................................168 vi. ConocoPhillips’s Misleading and Deceptive Greenwashing Campaigns ............................................................................................169 vii. API’s Misleading and Deceptive Greenwashing Campaigns ..............170 G. Defendants Also Made Misleading Claims About Specific “Green” or “Greener” Fossil Fuel Products. ..................................................................172 H. Defendants Intended for Consumers to Rely on their Concealments and Omissions Regarding the Dangers of Their Fossil Fuel Products. ..............................................................................................177 I. Defendants’ Deceit Only Recently Became Discoverable, and Their Misconduct Is Ongoing. ..............................................................................179 J. The State Has Suffered, Is Suffering, and Will Suffer Injuries from Defendants’ Wrongful Conduct...................................................................183 V. CAUSES OF ACTION ..............................................................................198 FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION (Negligent Failure to Warn) (Against All Fossil Fuel Defendants) ..........................................................198 SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION (Trespass) (Against All Fossil Fuel Defendants) ..........................................................203 THIRD CAUSE OF ACTION (Nuisance) (Against All Fossil Fuel Defendants) ..........................................................204 ii FOURTH CAUSE OF ACTION (Delaware Consumer Fraud Act) (Against American Petroleum Institute, BP America Inc., BP plc, Chevron Corporation, Chevron U.S.A. Inc., Exxon Mobil Corporation, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, XTO Energy, Inc., Hess Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Shell Oil Company, Citgo Petroleum Corporation, CNX Resources Corporation, Marathon Oil Company, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Marathon Oil Corporation, Marathon Petroleum Company LP, and Speedway LLC) ...........................................................................................209 VI. PRAYER FOR RELIEF ...........................................................................217 VII. REQUEST FOR JURY TRIAL ...............................................................217 iii I. INTRODUCTION 1. Defendants, major corporate members of the fossil fuel industry, have known for nearly half a century that unrestricted production and use of fossil fuel products create greenhouse gas pollution that warms the planet and changes our climate. Climate change will have and has already had devastating economic and public health impacts across the State of Delaware, and will disproportionately impact people of color and people living in poverty. Defendants have known for decades that climate change impacts could be catastrophic, and that only a narrow window existed to take action before the consequences would be irreversible. They have nevertheless engaged in a coordinated, multi-front effort to conceal and deny their own knowledge of those threats, to discredit the growing body of publicly available scientific evidence, and to persistently create doubt in the minds of customers, consumers, regulators, the media, journalists, teachers, and the public about the reality and consequences of the impacts of their fossil fuel products. This campaign was intended to, and did, target and influence the public and consumers, including in Delaware. 2. At the same time, Defendants have promoted and profited from a massive increase in the extraction, production, and consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas, which has in turn caused an enormous, foreseeable, and avoidable increase in global greenhouse gas pollution and a concomitant increase in the 1 1 concentration of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (“CO2”) and methane, in the Earth’s atmosphere. Those disruptions of the Earth’s otherwise balanced carbon cycle have substantially contributed to a wide range of dire climate- related effects, including, but not limited to, global atmospheric and ocean warming, ocean acidification, melting polar ice caps and glaciers, more extreme and volatile weather, drought, and sea level rise. 3. Plaintiff, the State of Delaware,2 its departments and agencies, along with the State’s residents, infrastructure, public and private lands, and natural resources, suffer the consequences of Defendants’ campaign of deception. 4. Defendants are extractors, producers, refiners, manufacturers, distributors, promoters, marketers, and/or sellers of fossil fuel products, each of which contributed to deceiving the public and consumers, in and outside of Delaware, about the role of their products in causing the global climate crisis. Decades of scientific research has shown that pollution from Defendants’ fossil fuel products plays a direct and substantial role in the unprecedented rise in emissions of 1 As used in this Complaint, the term “greenhouse gases” refers collectively to carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Where a cited source refers to a specific gas or gases, or when a process relates only to a specific gas or gases, this Complaint refers to each gas by name. 2 In this Complaint, the terms “State” and “Plaintiff” refer to the State of Delaware, unless otherwise stated. The word “Delaware” refers to the area falling within Plaintiff’s geographic boundaries, excluding federal land, unless otherwise stated. 2 greenhouse gas pollution and increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations that have th occurred since the mid-20 century. This dramatic increase in atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases is the main driver of the gravely dangerous changes occurring to the global climate. 5. Anthropogenic greenhouse gas pollution, primarily in the form of CO2, is far and away the dominant cause of global warming,3 resulting in severe impacts including, but not limited to: sea level rise, disruption