Sued For “Climate Change,” Big Oil Should Destroy Chicago’s Economy

You might have seen this earlier. It would be comic if it wasn’t so idiotic. The city of Chicago, one of the worst-run cities on the planet, has now filed suit against BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell for having ruined the climate, or something.

Chicago is suing five of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, accusing them of lying about their products and the dangers of climate change that contributes to flooding, extreme heat and other destructive forces that hurt the city and its residents.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court Tuesday that names BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Shell, accusing the companies of discrediting science and misleading the public as the climate crisis continued to wreak havoc on the planet.

The city is also suing the trade group American Petroleum Institute, which it accuses of conspiring with the companies to deceive consumers through disinformation campaigns even as the industry acknowledged internally that climate change was real.

“The climate change impacts that Chicago has faced and will continue to face — including more frequent and intense storms, flooding, droughts, extreme heat events and shoreline erosion — are felt throughout every part of the city and disproportionately in low-income communities,” the city said in its lawsuit.

Chicago is following the lead of New York, California and other cities and states that seek to recoup potentially billions of dollars in damages blamed on the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas, that create carbon dioxide and have led to climate change. The city has not asked for a specific amount of money.

The city is asking a court to hold the companies responsible for the costs of climate change, including damage to property and infrastructure necessary to adapt.

For instance, the city said it’s spending $188 million on climate projects in low-income communities.

All of this is completely asinine, of course. Why sue just Big Oil and not every single driller, refiner, transporter and retailer of gasoline? Why not sue all the plastics companies? Why not sue all the pharmaceutical, consumer goods and food-service companies? They all use petroleum products in their offerings?

It’s a stupid publicity stunt and a wish-and-prayer attempt to drag one or two of the oil companies into a settlement that might bail out the city of Chicago which is rapidly going bankrupt under the mismanagement of Brandon Johnson and the morons who preceded him.

And yes, these companies should fight it out in court with Johnson and the radical leftist wreckers who goaded him into this suit.

But honestly, that isn’t enough. Especially in this current environment where a presidential candidate is persecuted by unhinged women suing on sexual fantasies, corrupt district attorneys and judges seeking outrageous fines for standard conduct which creates no harm and a White House weaponizing the Justice Department against not just Donald Trump but lots of ordinary Americans who never hurt anybody. The Left is out of control, and they’re wrecking not just the legal system but the fabric of society at large.

Because these dumb attempts at lawfare, and lots of other ridiculous abuses, whether of public policy, or of culture, or whatever, will continue until there are consequences. Until somebody fights back and makes an example of the people who perpetrate them.

Chicago is using a crappy law firm out of California which is funded by a bunch of left-wing nonprofits, as we understand it, to prosecute this suit. And that firm will troll all over the country for clients. The five oil companies involved in this suit are going to get hit again and again as these radical lawyers shop around for suitably idiotic venues to ply their trade, because there will be mayors and city councils as dumb as Brandon Johnson and the people who run Chicago are.

Unless they’re made an example of.

Chicago can sue those companies anytime they want, for whatever harms they want to allege. Whether the suit has merit is another matter altogether.

But similarly, those companies can choose to do business with Chicago, or perhaps not to do business with Chicago.

We counted 17 Shell stations in Chicago. And 56 ExxonMobil stations. BP has 125 stations there. There are five Conoco stations. And Chevron has at least six, apparently, though attempting to find gas stations on that company’s website is a exercise in self-abuse.

What if all five of the corporate defendants in this law suit said, “You’re right. Maybe our products are bad for Chicago. So we’ll just stop selling them in your city and see how that does.”

What happens to a city if more than 200 gas stations in town simply stop selling gas? How long before that city becomes unlivable?

Three days? A week? Ten days?

In two weeks the economy of Chicago would be in an utter state of collapse. People would be siphoning gas out of parked cars, there would be wildcatters fueling cars from fuel trucks in Walmart parking lots – oh, wait, Walmart closed half their locations in Chicago – and you would have a full-on crisis on your hands.

And that would certainly be terrible for the people of Chicago.

Who voted this low-IQ troglodyte mayor into office. And created this suit with those actions.

Brandon Johnson is a mental defective who understands nothing about public policy, economics or the environment. He’s a teenager with whiskey and car keys. But even Brandon Johnson is capable of learning if the lesson is severe enough.

And if he’s not, maybe others are.

We’re reminded of this…

And yes, it’s a mean and nasty thing to do. Individual gas station owners could be badly hurt, and maybe those companies ought to offer them a make-good in compensation for revenue lost while the embargo is happening. But modern Democrats are people who grew up never getting in a fight in the schoolyard. These are people who don’t understand the concept of consequences, and their idea of reality is utterly warped.

Lawsuits like this idiotic thing in Chicago have the potential to destroy tens of thousands of jobs, if not a lot more than that. They could sack a whole industry that we cannot replace. And for what? To enrich a bunch of public-sector pillagers who offer nothing but empty rhetoric and excuses for their own failures?

It’s far less damaging over the long haul to reduce Chicago to a flaming economic wreck and teach those awful voters a lesson than to play nice and allow idiocy like this to spread. Rip the Band-Aid off and make an example.