PORTLAND, Ore. — Multnomah County has expanded its $50 billion lawsuit against fossil fuel companies over the impacts of climate change, adding Oregon's largest supplier of natural gas and a climate change-denying research group to the list of defendants.
The county first filed the complaint in July 2023, alleging that 17 fossil fuel companies are responsible for climate change and contributed to the deadly heat dome of 2021. Parts of Portland reached a record 116 degrees during that event, leading to at least 69 deaths and hundreds of hospitalizations.
In the newly amended complaint, attorneys for Multnomah County argue that natural gas company NW Natural is "responsible for a substantial portion" of the greenhouse gas pollution in Oregon, and that the company has put out misinformation about the harm caused by those emissions.
According to the complaint, NW Natural contends that it is responsible as a single company for at least 9% of Oregon's emissions and has averaged well over 57,000 metric tons of emissions in the past decade.
In addition to NW Natural, the complaint alleges that a nonprofit firm called the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine "serves as a propagandist" for the fossil fuel industry, working to mislead the public about the magnitude of the industry's contributions to climate change.
The OISM was founded in the early 1980s by Art Robinson, now a Republican state senator for portions of southern Oregon around his home of Cave Junction. An independent biochemistry researcher and home-schooling advocate, Robinson has long been an ardent denier of human-caused climate change — circulating a petition claiming that there is "no convincing scientific evidence" that greenhouse gases cause climate disruption.
"Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth," the petition argues.
Robinson remains president of OISM. According to the complaint, his group has received funding, via The Heartland Institute, from Exxon and Koch Industries — also defendants in the lawsuit.
While dozens of cities, states and counties have sued the fossil fuel industry over extreme weather events linked to climate change — thus far with little success — Multnomah County has argued that the amount of science behind this lawsuit sets it apart.
Following the 2021 heat dome, an attribution study found that those extreme temperatures would have been "virtually impossible" in the Pacific Northwest without the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels.
"We’re already paying dearly in Multnomah County for our climate crisis — with our tax dollars, with our health and with our lives. Going forward we have to strengthen our safety net just to keep people safe,” said Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson in a statement. “As we learned in this country when we took on big tobacco, this is not an easy step or one I take lightly, but I do believe it’s our best way to fight for our community and protect our future.”
The lawsuit remains pending in Multnomah County Circuit Court and has not yet been set for trial.
