DV Journal

(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty.)

The nonprofit trying to persuade local governments to sue “Big Oil” producers for damages allegedly caused by climate change has been making steady advances to Chester and Delaware counties, according to an email provided to Broad + Liberty.

The revelation comes just two months after the Bucks County Board of Commissioners announced it would sue major oil producers like BP, Chevron, Exxon, and others, arguing that the companies knew for decades that their products would cause climate change yet took no action. Several days after the announcement, the only Republican on the three-person board, Gene DiGirolamo, withdrew his support for the suit.

Indeed, it appears as if the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) was eager to use its success with Bucks County as a springboard.

Bucks County became the first local government in the commonwealth to take up the kind of suit that first began to sprout up about a decade ago. For example, in 2016, San Francisco and some other California municipalities sued longtime oil producers. Bucks County is being represented by the law firm DiCello Levitt on a contingency basis, meaning the county does not pay the lawyers unless the lawyers win the case.

In an email sent March 18, 2024, a senior political associate for CCI emailed Delaware County Councilmember Christine Reuther, and cc’d Bucks Commissioner Bob Harvie, both Democrats.

“My name is David Zeballos and I’m with the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a nonprofit that helps elected officials and their communities hold oil and gas corporations accountable for the massive costs of climate change. I’ve met with a number of folks who have told me about the southeast PA regional call that you are now leading! That includes Council Member Elaine Schaefer, Commissioner Bob Harvie, Commissioner Josh Maxwell, and Commissioner Marian Moskowitz, who all expressed support about the work CCI does,” Zeballos wrote.

“Do you have any availability for a 30 min Zoom meeting to talk about our work in Pennsylvania and areas for collaboration?” Zeballos wrote later in the email.

The Center for Climate Integrity is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that says its mission is to “educate communities and elected officials about the role of polluters in causing climate change and the need to hold polluters accountable for their actions.”

A spokesperson for Chester County said no action is imminent, but noted that could change.

“Chester County is not considering a similar lawsuit at this time,” spokesperson Michelle Bjork said. “However, we will continue to monitor any developments in Bucks County’s case and will reevaluate as needed.”

“Chester County’s commitment to protecting the environment and our residents is demonstrated by our efforts to preserve more than 30 percent of the County as permanently protected open space and we will continue to explore all avenues to safeguard our community,” Bjork said.

Requests for comment to Delaware and Bucks counties were not returned. A request for comment to CCI was also not returned.

Delaware County already has something of an established relationship with CCI. County Council Chair Monica Taylor (D) is listed as a member of CCI’s “leaders network” and recently participated in the press roll out of a major CCI study.

In November, Taylor rattled her rhetorical sword about the need to punish oil producers in a Politico article.

“I agree that it’s not fair for this burden of addressing climate change to fall only on our residents,” Taylor said. “Polluters should and must pay.”

Yet the politics of oil are very different between Bucks and Delaware counties. In Delaware, thousands of people are employed in the industry at places like the Marcus Hook LNG terminal.

Counties do receive annual payouts from Pennsylvania’s “Act 13” of 2012, commonly known as the “impact fee” imposed on “unconventional” gas wells and distributed to counties and municipalities to help them maintain the environment, or to offset the wear on infrastructure from oil and gas drilling.

For example, for the five years from 2019 to 2023, Bucks County received $2.76 million from the impact fee, even though there are no active wells in the county. Delaware County took in $2.45 million over the same period, according to a state website devoted to Act 13 revenues and disbursements.

The impact fee delivered $179 million across all governments in the commonwealth in 2023.

In Western Pennsylvania, CCI gave a presentation in April on “climate accountability” to an environmental subcommittee of the Allegheny County Council. At the time, a council member said it would be premature to assume the county would sue oil producers.

Some of the initial lawsuits against Big Oil have already failed. In 2019, a New York judge ruled in Exxon’s favor, but as is often the case, the message of the ruling was nuanced, with Justice Barry Ostrager of the New York State Supreme Court writing, “this is a securities fraud case, not a climate change case.”

Other cases remain in progress, and, “[t]he number of climate-related cases against Exxon continues to grow,” the Wall Street Journal recently reported.

“In February, the city of Chicago sued Exxon and other major oil companies alleging they deceived Chicagoans about climate change. In March, Bucks County, Penn., filed a similar suit. The Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental group the Rockefeller charities helped create, swayed officials in both places to bring the suits.”

IRS filings show CCI is predominantly funded by the Rockefeller Family Fund, the philanthropic endeavor established by the legendary New York family whose business pursuits in the earliest parts of the 20th century produced Standard Oil, the petroleum monopoly whose most prominent corporate successor is Exxon.

The Journal also reported that the Rockefeller Family Fund “influenced President Biden’s decision in January to pause approval of new liquefied natural gas exports,” — a decision that touched off bipartisan condemnations in Pennsylvania, the nation’s largest LNG exporter.

“While the immediate impacts on Pennsylvania remain to be seen, we have concerns about the long-term impacts that this pause will have on the thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry,” Democratic U.S. Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman said in a joint statement. “If this decision puts Pennsylvania energy jobs at risk, we will push the Biden Administration to reverse this decision.”

Numerous other politicians, including many Republicans, and associations also heavily criticized the Biden LNG “pause” — something that could easily become an issue in the presidential election this year if circumstances continue to make Pennsylvania a crucial battleground state.

The email cited in this story was obtained via the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law by the nonprofit organization Government Accountability and Oversight. A database search of nonprofit tax filings did not reveal any significant grant donations to GAO in order to be able to characterize its funding.

Most political races focus on the differences in candidates’ viewpoints, failing to acknowledge the things upon which they can agree. My opponent, Heather Reynolds, and I have some similarities amidst our differences.

Like Heather Reynolds, I, too, grew up in a Jewish family. Unlike my opponent, I never felt different or marginalized. I am proud of my family’s Jewish heritage and don’t feel victimized at all.

Like Heather Reynolds, I, too, support an environment of inclusivity and belonging. Students deserve to learn in schools that foster resilience and develop confidence. Unlike my opponent, I support and encourage the acceptance of all viewpoints, which is why I hold firm in my stance that students should be taught how to think, not what specifically to think.

Like Heather Reynolds, I, too, believe we should be tolerant. Unlike my opponent, I believe that tolerance should extend to those whose views are in opposition to our own. Seeking to understand someone’s opposing viewpoint is an opportunity for appreciation, not vilification. Demonizing those who think differently serves only to divide. I respect Heather Reynold’s right to believe that teachers should use their positions to influence students’ political beliefs; still, I believe it is inappropriate for teachers to impress their political stances on the children over whom they have such influence. I support classroom environments free from the promotion of any political and sociopolitical content – classrooms that do not exclude anyone because of their beliefs and values.

Like Heather Reynolds, I, too, believe that our students’ mental health and wellness are of utmost importance. It’s why our current school board has aggressively supported hiring eight additional mental health counselors and the formation of a student services division that encompasses a wide range of services and supports aimed at nurturing the well-being of all students.

Unlike my opponent, I do not believe that facilitating a child’s gender transition without including parents is an appropriate component of mental health. Keeping parents uninformed about pronoun changes, name changes and gender transition isn’t a form of mental health support – it’s operating under a veil of secrecy that goes against the very transparency my opponent so frequently claims is lacking in Central Bucks.

Like Heather Reynolds, I believe our LGBTQAI+ students deserve to be heard and supported. It’s why we have books on our library shelves that focus on the LGBTQIA+ experience for adolescents. However, unlike Heather Reynolds, who believes books with graphic sexualized content should be accessible for students under the guise of being supportive, I believe our students can be respected and supported without exposing them to graphic books that promote adolescent sexual debauchery, complete with visual depictions of sex acts and other lewd descriptions of sexual contact and practices.

Like Heather Reynolds, I believe that students and staff should feel safe. It’s why our current Board fought to provide School Resource Officers at our three high schools and security guards in each of our middle schools. Unlike my opponent, who is a self-proclaimed Ambassador to the Defund the Police Movement, as she describes in one of her many recently deleted social media posts, I am willing to fight for anything that will provide our students, staff and parents with the feeling of safety and security they deserve.

I do believe that Heather Reynolds wants our district to be successful, as do I. Unlike Heather Reynolds, who claims that student achievement is plummeting, I maintain that the opposite is true. Niche.com ranked Central Bucks the top district in the county, and our three high schools (East, South and West) in the top 1 percent in the entire state. These rankings include academic achievement, among other factors. U.S. News and World Report concurred, ranking Central Bucks among the best districts in the nation.

Recently, Central Bucks East was named a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the United States Department of Education, a recognition that only one-third of one percent of schools ever achieve. We’ve enacted a dynamic strategic plan and are actively pursuing large systemic changes to provide full-day kindergarten, move our middle schools to grades 6-8, and our high schools to grades 9-12, all under the clear and capable leadership of our administrative team and superintendent.

Are these the accolades and actions of a failing district in need of overhaul?

We should be thrilled by what is happening in our district, committed to ensuring the very best for our students, and partnered with our community, and that includes respecting the rights of our parents to be involved and informed. Mrs. Reynolds would have you believe we are imploding.

She speaks of fiscal irresponsibility as she maligns our district for defending itself in a lawsuit and compensating our superintendent at a proportional rate. What she fails to mention is that she has interacted with a plaintiff’s lawyer to gauge the likelihood of our district settling on a case that has no merit, has not even gone to trial, and would cause a tax increase of over 50 percent to all district residents while eliminating essential services like transportation, and activities like athletics, band and more.

Heather Reynolds and I are both running for School Board in November. One of us will win. Let’s make sure that our students and families do as well.

Pennsylvania counties piled on to the national opioid settlement for their cut of more than $1 billion to use to address the opioid epidemic.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced last month that 50 counties—roughly 75 percent of Pennsylvania’s counties—had agreed to join the opioid settlement. Payments would be used for treatment for those impacted by opioid addiction.

The lawsuit against Cardinal, McKesson, Amerisource Bergen, and Johnson & Johnson was officially settled in July of last year and settled globally to resolve 4,000 individual lawsuits.

Of the $1 billion owed to Pennsylvania, $232 million is expected to be delivered in 2022. Counties were allowed to join the settlement up to Jan. 2.

Aside from financial help, the court set a series of regulations for those companies as a result of the lawsuit that restrict how opioids are distributed as well as completely banning Johnson & Johnson from selling opioids for the next 10 years.

Between 2017 and 2020, some 16, 897 Pennsylvanians died from drug overdoses, with countless more having their lives impacted due to addiction.

Funding for each county was determined by how badly it had been affected by opioid addiction. While Philadelphia has rejected the settlement as being too little, other Delaware Valley counties are on board. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner rejected the $5 million to $8 million per year over 18 years ($90-$144 million in total).

Chester County announced in a press release on Dec. 16 it will receive $15.5 million from the settlement. It currently plans on using the funds for increasing Chester’s support of prevention efforts.

“Two major initiatives to emerge from the task force’s efforts are the County’s COPE program,” Said Chester County spokesperson Rebecca Brian.” A 24/7 warm handoff program that helps individuals who have suffered an overdose transition from the emergency room to treatment; and the Chester County Color 5K, an annual event which has helped to raise awareness of the crisis and more than $185,000 over six years to help fund the COPE program. The event also serves to reduce the stigma of being associated with substance use disorder.”

The first installment of the funds is expected to Chester County sometime later in 2022.

Montgomery County spokeswoman Kelly Cofrancisco said the county should receive $35,108,680 from the settlement on the stipulation that every other eligible county applies for funding. Montgomery County expects not every county to apply for the funding, and instead expects to receive less money. It will not know the actual amount until later this year.

County officials have not yet determined what they will use the money for, she said.

Bucks County also said it was too early to predict how much money it would be receiving and how it would eventually use it.

And Delaware County “is slated to receive $48.5 million (plus an additional share of $30 million),” according to a spokeswoman for Shapiro. She was unable to say how much Delaware County would receive from the additional $30 million statewide sum.

Delaware County spokeswoman Adrienne  Marofsky said, “There are still some undetermined factors which will impact the number, but the payment is estimated at $45-50 million, over 18 years. Once we are given a final amount and details of the timeline, we will work to develop a plan on how to best utilize the money for opioid prevention and treatment for residents.”

Exhibit E of the settlement papers outlines acceptable uses of the opioid case remediation. The state breaks down the uses by priority with two sections; Schedule A or “Core Strategies” and Schedule B or “Approved Uses.”

Core strategies are those which the state would like counties to prioritize and includes tactics like expanding Naloxone training and distribution, medication-assisted treatments, and treatments for pregnant women and infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome.

Approved use includes a much broader load of acceptable uses, which are broken down into treatment, prevention, and “other strategies.”

“Other strategies” include overall education of community members and first responders, community-wide support for leadership, planning, and coordination, and research into several facets of society that either contribute to or are affected by the opioid epidemic.

“When the county filed its lawsuit in May 2018, we sought two things: to keep these and other similar companies from engaging in the acts and practices that led to the opioid crisis, and to be able to provide additional resources to the communities and families in our county who have been most impacted by their actions,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. “The settlement agreement reached by Attorney General Shapiro and several other states provides for significant industry changes and up to $1 billion that Pennsylvania is set to receive. We want our residents to benefit from that agreement and have resources available to them now and intend to sign on.”

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