The case could lead to more wrongful death and even criminal homicide cases against oil companies
A first-of-its-kind lawsuit seeks to compel oil companies to pay wrongful death damages by holding them responsible for climate change. Sealed court filings obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show a Rockefeller-funded green group is working on that suit behind the scenes.
Misti Leon filed the pioneering complaint in Washington state court on May 29, accusing seven oil companies of being responsible for the 2021 heat-wave death of her mother. Two days earlier, Leon quietly appointed climate activist and nonprofit leader Sarah Myhre to serve as the agent for her deceased mother’s estate, according to sealed court filings obtained by the Free Beacon. Myhre, who isn’t a lawyer, will be responsible for handling the estate’s papers as the case proceeds.
The filings appeared on letterhead of the Montana-based Bechtold Law Firm—Timothy Bechtold is one of the two lawyers representing Leon’s estate in the case. The metadata, however, show they were written by Naomi Spoelman, a senior attorney with the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a nonprofit leading a coordinated, nationwide plan to “drive divestment” from and “delegitimize” the oil industry through litigation. On May 30, a judge sealed those records at the request of Alizabeth Bronsdon, the second Montana-based lawyer representing Leon’s estate in the case.
When the Free Beacon asked CCI about the filings, the group confirmed its involvement in Leon’s suit: “CCI serves as a consulting expert in the case,” spokesman Mike Meno said in an email. Consulting experts are retained by legal teams to help craft litigation strategies and provide information pertaining to a case. While CCI had previously applauded Leon’s lawsuit, the group hadn’t disclosed its direct involvement.
CCI’s involvement in Leon’s suit suggests it’s part of the group’s nationwide offensive to force oil companies to fork over billions of dollars in climate-related damages. Over the last decade, CCI has played a starring role in a Rockefeller-masterminded plan to destabilize the oil industry, the Wall Street Journal reported last year. According to tax filings, the Rockefeller Family Fund provided a $1 million seed grant to kickstart CCI in 2017 and donated $10.5 million to it between 2020 and 2023.
“This so-called ‘wrongful death’ lawsuit in Washington State is just the latest stunt from the left’s dark-money climate lawfare machine,” Jason Isaac, the CEO of the right-leaning American Energy Institute told the Free Beacon. “Their goal isn’t justice, it’s to bleed energy companies dry and funnel the proceeds into radical environmental projects. These ‘climate homicide’ claims are absurd, and the public deserves to know who’s really pulling the strings.”
But climate activists say wrongful death accusations could serve as a new weapon against oil companies. They argue that Leon’s lawsuit could lead to an avalanche of similar wrongful death suits and “lay the groundwork” for future criminal homicide prosecutions against the industry.
CCI was founded eight years ago to promote high-impact lawsuits against oil companies and to recruit local governments to pursue such litigation. “Big Oil’s victims deserve accountability. This is an industry that is causing and accelerating climate conditions that kill people,” CCI president Richard Wiles said in May.
As part of its efforts, dozens of cities and states have sued oil companies, accusing them of selling products they know cause global warming and, therefore, of being complicit in costly weather events. In Leon’s case, defendants are accused of causing the heat wave that slammed the Pacific Northwest in June 2021 and contributed to her mother’s death.
Experts say the lawsuits could cripple the industry and serve as a backdoor to usher in an economy-wide transition to green energy.
In early 2016, near the outset of its plan to target the oil industry, the Rockefeller nonprofit leaders hosted a meeting with prominent environmental groups where they discussed plans to “delegitimize [ExxonMobil] as a political actor,” “force officials to disassociate themselves from Exxon,” “drive divestment from Exxon,” and use lawsuits and state prosecutors to obtain internal documents from ExxonMobil through judicial discovery, the Free Beacon reported at the time.
“The Center for Climate Integrity, bankrolled by Rockefeller foundations to the tune of millions, is the hidden hand pushing these baseless attacks on American energy producers,” Isaac said.
CCI has also received millions of dollars from English billionaire Christopher Hohn, who has funded the radical eco protest group Extinction Rebellion. Extinction Rebellion is known for organizing disruptive climate protests in public spaces worldwide and its co-founder once predicted climate change would lead to more rapes.
Meanwhile, Myhre, the activist Leon appointed as her mother’s estate’s agent with the help of CCI, is the director of partnerships for Democracy Forward. Democracy Forward is a powerful left-wing legal outfit with a board chaired by Democratic super lawyer Marc Elias. A Democracy Forward spokeswoman said the group has no involvement in Leon’s case.
In a May 29 post on Bluesky, Myhre said Leon’s decision to sue the oil industry is a “beacon of hope and integrity.” The next month, CCI posted a video clip of Myhre on its Bluesky account where she spoke about her harrowing experience during the 2021 heat wave: “We drove in the heat back to Seattle to make sure that our cats were okay,” she remarked. “So the heat dome was like a personal tragedy for us.”
Myhre previously served as the executive director of the CO2 Foundation, a Seattle group that provides grants to respond to the “global climate emergency.” The foundation has funded Climate Central, a group that issues studies linking recent weather events to climate change and which Wiles, CCI’s president, helped found.
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