Climate change attorneys say a Pa. statute could be used to prosecute fossil fuel companies 

Could climate polluters face criminal charges in Pennsylvania for causing or risking a catastrophe? A new article published this month in the New York University Environmental Law Journal highlights a Pennsylvania statute that could be used as a unique legal strategy to hold large emitters of carbon dioxide accountable. But several lawyers say it could be a tough sell to prosecutors.
More than 2,000 legal cases related to climate change have been filed nationwide, including a lawsuit filed in March by Bucks County against BP. A landmark case decided in December by the Montana Supreme Court ruled the state was violating residents’ constitutional rights to a clean environment by not taking into account the impact of greenhouse gas emissions when permitting fossil fuel operations. None of these thousands of lawsuits filed in state, local and federal courts, however, cite criminal statutes.
But the NYU law journal article, “Causing or Risking Climate Catastrophe,” relies on Pennsylvania’s criminal statutes and draws from a criminal case brought against the owner and manager of a nightclub on Pier 34 in Philadelphia, which collapsed into the Delaware River killing three women and injuring more than 40 people in 2000.
“It’s a novel approach,” said Aaron Regunberg, co-author of the article and head of the climate accountability program at the nonprofit Public Citizen. “We think it’s really appropriate and fits in well with the role of what prosecutors are supposed to do to seek justice for the victims of climate disasters and to proactively try to avoid these catastrophes moving forward.”
The criminal statute Regunberg said applies is causing or risking a catastrophe, which is a second or third-degree felony in Pennsylvania. It’s also a crime in five other states, including New Jersey. The authors chose to write about Pennsylvania because it has solid case law to support it, Regunberg said.
“Obviously it’s not new to prosecute corporations even for charges like homicide,” Regunberg said.
The Department of Justice charged BP with criminal offenses for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, for example. But criminal charges for companies that have emitted CO2, while knowing the consequences would be “catastrophic” may still be unused because of impracticalities and obstacles, according to several litigators who reviewed but did not participate in writing the law review article.
Still, Regunberg said they have been discussing the possibility with a number of county prosecutors and state Attorneys General.
“We need to be exploring every strategy that could help keep our community safe and seek justice for the folks who have been harmed by this crisis,” said Regunberg. “We have these criminal statutes that are untapped.”
“[Fossil fuel companies] have long understood — with shocking accuracy — that their fossil fuel products would cause, in their own words, ‘globally catastrophic’ climate change,” rea