Sanders: It’s Time For DOJ To Treat Fossil Fuel Giants Like The Liars They Are

It’s long past time for federal officials to recognize the fossil fuel industry’s “clear” law-breaking, Sanders said.

By Sharon Zhang, Truthout

As temperatures reach over 100 degrees in South America in the middle of winter, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is calling for federal officials to finally take the fossil fuel industry’s long-standing lies about the climate crisis seriously and prosecute the industry the same way the Justice Department prosecuted Big Tobacco decades ago.

In an op-ed published by MSNBC on Thursday, Sanders called for officials to recognize fossil fuel companies’ “clear violation” of racketeering, advertising, consumer protection and other laws in their campaign to spread climate denial and doom future generations to an unlivable planet.

“The fossil fuel companies knew. They knew they were causing global warming and threatening the very existence of the planet,” Sanders wrote. “Yet, in pursuit of profit, fossil fuel executives not only refused to publicly acknowledge what they had learned, but, year after year, lied about that existential threat. And they continue to fund misinformation campaigns today.”

For at least 60 years, scientists have warned fossil fuel executives that their products would cause global warming and widespread climate destabilization. In the ensuing decades, executives had the choice to pivot their businesses into renewable energies that could have saved the planet from climate destruction.