King County, Wash., filed a lawsuit yesterday against the five biggest oil companies for climate damages, the latest in a growing group of municipalities taking on the oil industry.
The county, which is home to Seattle and more than 2 million people, is suing BP PLC, Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC and ConocoPhillips.
The complaint, filed in King County Superior Court, seeks an order requiring the companies to fund the costs of adapting infrastructure to climate damages, like stormwater management and salmon recovery systems. The abatement fund could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, county attorneys said.