Mayor Bill de Blasio announced yesterday that New York City is filing a lawsuit against Big Oil, seeking unspecified damages that will likely total in the tens of billions of dollars. The immediate cause for the suit, filed against BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell, is the damage and expenses associated with climate change— caused by the oil companies, on this view. In particular, the city wants to recoup the costs of rebuilding from Superstorm Sandy and the $20 billion that it plans to spend on storm resiliency.
Hold on, I need a minute to stop laughing.
OK, done. Damn, that is some funny shit. Now let’s get down to some comment, the reason why De Blasio is suing (besides being an idiotic Socialist) is because Superstorm Sandy did not trigger Hurricane Emergency Federal Funding. “But Miguel! It was a Superstorm!” Sorry that is made up bullshit by Chris Christie (At lest that is the first one I hear using the term) in order to see if Trenton would release some extra cash to get things fixed.
Sandy got to that area as a weak Category One Hurricane (80 mph) and when making landfall and as it happens with all hurricanes, the speeds drop down immediately and the National Weather Service downgraded it to Tropical Storm. (73 mph and under) and making all that FEMA superfunding unavailable.
Created by OverlordQ using WikiProject Tropical cyclones/Tracks. The background image is from NASA. Tracking data is from NHC.
If you are a regular visitor of the blog, you know Floridians have very little respect for Tropical Storms. We cannot even have a hurricane party simply because there is no hurricane. Schools maybe close for a day and you don’t see the shelves in supermarkets bare of milk and bread. At most you make sure that the outside furniture is tied down and you bring the parrots and other birdies inside the house for the duration. And companies do not care if you house has no power, you better show up for work the next day.
Hurricane Irma hit the Keys with sustained winds of 130 mph and proceeded then to hit the West Coast of Florida with sustained winds of 115 mph and gusts up to 142 mph. Over at this side of state (125 miles away) we were getting sustained winds 70 mph with gusts of 100 mph. That was a fucking monster storm, not some whiny-ass rain and wind bitch soaking the panties of NYC residents.
If anything, today shows that Democrats do not learn from history. First we fiind out that they are pissed a study they ordered to prove more Gun Control is necessary goes south again but they want to do repeat it till it comes their way and then they are going to sue somebody who they claim cause the problem they had without any frigging evidence to back them up, only propaganda. It does sound so eerily familiar to the 1990s lawsuits against Gun Makers in order to get compensation for ER medical expenses they claimed were direct result of guns being tossed about in the Ghettos.
That did not go well and the Gun Companies did not have the available capital Oil Companies have to fight in court. Maybe De Blasio is seeking some sort of arrangement, a check with a billion or several hundred millions as way of sealed settlement which more likely a good part will go to lawyers friends of the Dems who will spread the wealth in campaign contributions and ultimately a house by the sea-shore for those upcoming retirement from politics years. I do hope they build them to Hurricane Specs, though.
It sure feels like a case of extortion by lawsuit. One would hope the oil companies will resist, but since they are very seriously into Politically Correct these days, they will probably roll over.
A nice defense would be “Hey, WE didn’t put that CO2 in the air. Oil only does that if you burn it, and we weren’t the ones doing the burning.”
All the oil compaies have to do is cut off their energy, As New York freezes, they’ll drop that suit forthwith!
I think that the oil companies ought to cease all business in NYC while they are in litigation. Both on Wall Street and the local gas stations.
I said they should get a restraining order to stay out of NYC.
https://gunfreezone.net/index.php/2018/01/10/i-back-de-blasio-on-this/
I hope as part of the settlement, “Big Oil” closes all gas stations within NYC, stops all delivery of heating oil to NYC customers, and relocates any oil tanker ports to New Jersey or anywhere else. I’m sure the citizens of De Blasio’s fiefdom will appreciate the contribution they will be making to reducing global warming/climate change. Maybe they can make some money by turning New Amsterdam into an 18th century living history museum.
It would be the only responsible thing to do!
For the life of me I still can’t understand how people vote an idiot like this into office. Then again, we have a shitload of NY transplants down here so in a way I understand.
I believe it was Italy that prosecuted a geologist for not predicting a volcano eruption.
Earthquake… and was more than one scientist.
You weren’t hanging out with the right bunch of Floridians. We had parties when there were tropical storms. Of course there was usually a party or a gathering or a BBQ or whatever every weekend (and some weekdays).
But they can’t be proper hurricane parties without a hurricane.
And Tropical Storm Parties just does not have the same cool level. 🙂