Letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Calling for Investigation into Fossil Fuel Industry for Climate-Related Crimes
Department of Justice
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20530
August 15, 2024
Dear Attorney General Garland,
We are writing to you as a cross-section of Americans who have survived a range of climate-driven disasters caused by the fossil fuel industry’s disregard for our lives, our health, and our planet. We have survived hurricanes, floods, extreme heat, fires, and other hazards impacting our lives more frequently and with greater intensity due to climate change. Others of us join this letter as allies: we’ve watched friends, family members, and neighbors pick up the pieces after climate disasters and suspect that we too will suffer similar events before long. Together, we are calling on the Department of Justice to investigate the fossil fuel industry for climate-related crimes.
The fossil fuel industry has known since the 1950s about the dangers posed by burning fossil fuels. Instead of acting responsibly on their own scientists’ warnings, they waged a decades-long disinformation campaign to muddy the science and confuse and mislead the public. The burning of fossil fuels has racked up enormous profits for fossil fuel companies while stoking the fire of climate change and driving increasingly lethal extreme weather events that have destroyed lives, property, and livelihoods. And the damage is far from over. Communities across the country are battling a summer onslaught of deadly heat waves, hurricanes, and wildfires.
While our stories and experiences are diverse, the fossil fuel industry’s misconduct is a consistent throughline. Some of us have lost our homes and property, our businesses, and our entire communities to climate-driven disasters. Some of us have suffered from repeat climate disasters, making recovery even more difficult, or even out of reach. And some of us have suffered the unspeakable loss of our neighbors, friends, and family members—all at the hands of an industry that has the power to change course but instead chooses to persist in an extremely dangerous course of conduct causing catastrophic harm, just as predicted.
We call on the Department of Justice to investigate the crimes of the fossil fuel industry. Victims and survivors of the industry-caused climate crisis deserve justice.
Sincerely,
Over 10,000 members of Public Citizen and Chesapeake Climate Action Network including over 1,000 survivors of climate disasters.