Ellen Trost-Rekich, 19, a student at Harper Community College in Palatine, holds a poster during the Global Climate Strike in downtown Chicago, April 19.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We need serious solutions, and that requires an all-hands-on-deck approach to developing the technologies and policies that will enable the world to produce and use energy that is sustainable for people and the planet.
Thanks to the ingenuity and innovation of American manufacturers, we are making headway. Manufacturers have reduced greenhouse gas emissions more than any other sector since 1990. The industry remains focused on identifying ways to meet the world’s sustainability goals.
That is why we disagree with Chicago’s recent decision to sue various oil companies in an effort to make them pay the city for the impacts of global climate change. The lawsuit names the companies that provide all of us with the energy we need to live our lives — from heating our homes to turning on our lights to powering our factories. Other similar lawsuits name companies that produce the food we eat.
As the multitude of lawsuits and the wide variety of companies they try to blame for climate change implicitly acknowledge, climate change is not the fault of any industry or group of companies. It is society-wide, with greenhouse gas emissions emanating from sources far beyond Chicago, Illinois and the United States. The situation we are in is a shared global phenomenon caused by modern life.
What we need from our leaders are global solutions, not local lawsuits. First, these lawsuits have no legal merit. For two decades, they have been packaged and repackaged, and federal courts have repeatedly dismissed them. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court broadly cautioned against climate litigation, saying the judiciary is not the venue for regulating or penalizing greenhouse gas emissions. Congress and federal agencies, not courts, are where these public policy judgments must be made.
A U.S. Court of Appeals panel reinforced this point when it dismissed New York City’s climate lawsuit — a case nearly identical to Chicago’s — a decade later. It said it is not legally appropriate to subject companies to liability “for the effects of emissions made around the globe over the past several hundred years.” The court continued that this litigation “ignores economic reality.”
There is no escaping the fact that making energy companies give money to Chicago and other cities over climate change will make the energy those companies sell for our everyday needs more expensive. In fact, one of the lead organizers of these lawsuits said that this is their goal: “raise the price” of oil, gas and electricity to make us either pay more for energy, or use less.
Another agreed, saying these pass-through costs are their way of trying to “hold consumers responsible” for climate change. This notion also ignores economic reality. It makes no sense to impose a penalty on energy use regardless of how much it will cost, who can afford to pay it, and how our money will be spent. These questions are for Congress, not courts, where we can rely on the checks and balances of the legislative process to protect our collective interests.
The truth is that for many of us, paying higher electric bills, more at the gas pump, or increased manufacturing costs is not an option. And raising the price of energy will do nothing to move the needle on climate change.
The best solution is innovation, and that happens to be where the manufacturing community in Illinois and around the United States excel. Industries are prioritizing sustainability and are actively working to develop operations with fewer emissions and improved efficiency. According to the Congressional Budget Office, manufacturing emissions were 17% lower in 2021 than in 2002 because of this progress.
This innovation, and well-designed public policy, is what America needs to make a meaningful difference against climate change. Chicago’s lawsuit neither serves the public’s interest nor reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The city’s time is better spent working towards real solutions, as manufacturers do every day.
Mark Denzler is president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. Phil Goldberg is special counsel to the Manufactures’ Accountability Project.
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