Baseless public nuisance litigation targeting manufacturers has motivated a mayor in California to speak out in a recent op-ed, noting that the same law firm—Hagens Berman—is orchestrating these profit-motivated lawsuits.

Mike Posey, mayor of Huntington Beach, California, recently authored a California Political Review op-ed highlighting his participation at a roundtable in Orange County hosted by the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project to discuss the public nuisance lawsuits in California:

“Our message, public nuisance lawsuits are reckless and are economically dangerous for California. There is no real foundation for these lawsuits at all. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously years ago that corporations cannot be sued over greenhouse gas emissions under federal common law…. They try to take matters best decided by elected officials and put them in the hands of judges. The reason? Climate activists have failed over and over to get their way, so they’re trying an end around. In the process, they’re filing lawsuits that could cost real jobs.”

Posey’s commentary addresses Hagens Berman’s self-interested role in pushing these lawsuits:

“There’s no secret why lawyers like these lawsuits. Records show that Hagens Berman, the firm behind the San Francisco and Oakland public nuisance lawsuit, would have raked in 23.5 percent of the payout to those cities had Judge Alsup not thrown out the lawsuit.”

Despite manufacturers’ successful efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent over the last decade and the repeated failure of these frivolous public nuisance lawsuits in court, trial lawyers and headline-seeking politicians continue to contemplate bringing additional litigation. Through the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project, manufacturers will continue to fight back against this blatant abuse of our legal system that puts jobs and progress at risk.

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