Brian Ler on WNYC, now our climate story of the week, which we're doing every Tuesday

all this year on the show, today we'll take a closer look at a new climate-related

lawsuit that came up briefly on the show last week when we spent each day covering climate

week NYC. Early this month, California Governor Gavin Newsom, have you heard this announced

a lawsuit against five major oil companies seeking compensation for damages caused by

climate change? The state alleges that Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, Connico Phillips,

and the American Petroleum Institute have caused tens of billions of dollars in damages

and that they downplayed the risks of fossil fuels on the climate that they knew about.

These types of lawsuits sometimes classified as consumer protection cases are playing out

in many different states and municipalities across the country, including here in New

York City. But this news, according to climate activists, from California is big. That's

because California is a major oil-producing state and the fifth largest economy in

the world, by the way. Joining me now to explain what's behind the lawsuit and how Governor

Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonter will proceed is Blanca Beguillert, California

Climate Reporter for Politico, where she anchors the California Climate Newsletter. Blanca,

thanks for coming on for this. Welcome back to WNYC.

Hi, thank you so much for having me. Are they alleging in California's Governor Newsom

alleging that the oil companies defrauded Californians and everyone else by knowing the

effects of their product on the climate and trying to cover it up?

Yes, that's definitely part of the claim is that they deceived the public. So, right,

the lawsuit has a couple different claims on one of the public nuisance, which is, you

know, unreasonable interference with the rights of the public. But then also, debt just

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