Oil Companies Sued Over Death of Woman during 2021 Pacific Northwest Heat Wave
A review of the marketing of “heat domes”, the history of American heat waves, and the real statistics behind temperature-related deaths.
The daughter of a woman who died of “overheating” has filed a groundbreaking wrongful death lawsuit against seven major oil and gas companies in Washington State, alleging that their actions led to her mother’s death during a historic heatwave in June 2021.
The lawsuit, considered the first of its kind in the United States, specifically targets ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, and Olympic Pipeline Company.
The New York Times reviews the case, and of course, its coverage makes the fossil fuel companies look like polluting villains.
Numerous independent investigations, including recent inquiries by Congress, have revealed that many major oil companies and their trade groups spread disinformation about climate change and worked to hold back the clean energy industry.
And scientists around the world overwhelmingly agree that fossil fuel emissions have caused significant planetary warming in recent decades.
Average global temperatures in 2024 were more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, higher than those the planet experienced at the start of the industrial age, leading to extreme heat, violent weather, rising seas and melting glaciers.
While the death of anyone during a heat event is sad, I think there is a lot to unpack here for a more complete understanding of the press and its destructive “climate crisis” coverage.
On June 28, 2021, Seattle experienced unprecedented temperatures, reaching as high as 108°F, which marked the city’s hottest day on record. Juliana Leon, a 65-year-old woman, was driving home from a medical appointment when she was overcome by the extreme heat. Her vehicle’s air conditioning was not working, and she had rolled down the windows, but the intense outdoor conditions proved fatal. A passerby found her unconscious in her car, and emergency responders were unable to revive her. Her official cause of death was hyperthermia, or overheating.
Misti Leon’s lawsuit argues that the oil companies named as defendants knew for decades that their products would contribute to climate change and lead to deadly weather events, yet they concealed and downplayed these risks from the public.
It’s worthwhile to point out that globally, Earth’s temperature averages are among the coldest that have been determined for the last 485 million years.
Much of the press coverage is focused on the “historic heat dome”, which is a weather phenomenon in which a persistent area of high atmospheric pressure traps hot air over a large region for an extended period, sometimes days or even weeks. This high-pressure system acts like a lid or cap, preventing the hot air from rising and escaping, which intensifies the heat at the surface.
The press is ginning up more fear about future “heat domes“.
During this historic heat wave, more than 250 people in the Pacific Northwest succumbed to the heat. In Western Canada, more than 400 people perished. Excessive heat is the No. 1 weather-related hazard-yielding fatality in the world. In fact, it kills more people than all other weather-related hazards — including hurricanes, floods, tornados and winter storms — combined.
However, it turns out that moderate cold is even more deadly to humans than excessive heat.
Globally, cold deaths are 9 times higher than heat-related ones. In no region is this ratio less than 3, and in many, it’s over 10 times higher. Cold is more deadly than heat, even in the hottest parts of the world.
Referring to the term “heat dome”, an AI search of the term reveals that “heat dome” first came into heavy use in 2011, according to a New York Times investigation into its growing popularity, which corresponds to the promotion of “global warming”.
The phrase had been used occasionally before then: one analysis found the term appeared 66 times in media between 1980 and 2000, yet its frequency increased dramatically to 700 mentions between 2010 and 2019, and it has remained widely used since. The American Meteorological Society officially added “heat dome” to its glossary in March 2022.
Yes, because marketing and language are important when you have snake oil to sell.
In the old days, long days of high temperatures used to be called “heat wave”, and the most severe heat wave in U.S. history occurred during the Dust Bowl era in the summer of 1936. Temperatures soared above 100°F (38°C) for prolonged periods, with some areas in North Dakota reaching 120°F (49°C) and Illinois seeing temperatures over 110°F.
Fossil fuel usage was not the factor here. Poor land management practices, which are also a contributing factor to the supposed ‘climate’ problems we face today, have played a role.
Several companies named in the lawsuit did not respond to requests for comments from the “impartial media.” A Chevron spokesperson did go on the record with a pitch-perfect remark.
Chevron Corporation counsel Theodore Boutrous Jr. said in a statement: “Exploiting a personal tragedy to promote politicized climate tort litigation is contrary to law, science, and common sense. The court should add this far-fetched claim to the growing list of meritless climate lawsuits that state and federal courts have already dismissed.”
While it is said that a woman died, 100% of all people will eventually do so. The woman also chose to drive on an extremely hot day without air conditioning and to continue to do so despite discomfort (not choosing to pull over into shade). That’s not the fault of the American petroleum industry.
I will conclude that the fossil fuels the energy companies can’t extract, transport, and sell today may make both summers and winters more expensive and potentially lethal tomorrow.
Image by perplexity.ai.
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Comments
Idiotic. this stupidity increases the costs of energy for everyone.
The only problem I see is the woman reproduced before succumbing to her own stupidity. Where was Darwin when he was needed?
This needs a song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0rOMF9y2qI&list=RD-0rOMF9y2qI&start_radio=1
A copycat of the tobacco lawsuits. Could get interesting, with expert testimony under oath from Dr. Michael E Mann for the plaintiffs. Maybe even the top ratedest scientist of all times Bill Nye. Pick their fraud science apart in the courtroom with an update every night on the news. Get this stuff out there for all to see. Downside is armies of lawyers get rich (although maybe not a downside on this blog).
They went there. FAFO
The tobacco suits, unfounded as they were, at least referred to harms suffered by individuals who smoked cigarettes themselves. Maybe to harms suffered by individuals who spent time in the same rooms where other individuals were smoking.
Here we have alleged liability by the oil company that sold to the distributor that sold to the gas station in, oh, I don’t know, New Brunswick that sold to the driver in New Brunswick… who produced tailpipe emissions that allegedly contributed to the death of a woman in Seattle.
Don’t forget “second hand smoke” which was claimed to be more cancer causing to others than to the person smoking. A world without petroleum… the world they want… would be something from the 1700’s at best… but no whale oil… a lot of candlefish maybe.
Perhaps not more cancer causing, but certainly still harmful.
How come the family didn’t help mom fix the air conditioning in her car?
and how come they allowed her to commit suicide by burning fossil fuels???
The lawyer is entitled to a grievance for such a fivolous lawsuit that will not escape dismissal.
Who is funding the lawsuit?
That’s a splendid image. AI?
As I started to read this I was wondering to myself what medical issues this woman was suffering from, like being morbidly obese and lo and behold….she was undergoing some kind of treatment.
Was she morbidly obese? If so, will the family sue food producers for her inability to say no to cheesy snacks?
These kinds of cases will not benefit the family. They are mere pawns in someone else’s game.
The suit is not intended for court. The daughter and her lawyer are looking for “go away “ money.
Yep, it screams “nuisance value” all over.
Very interesting. Filed in State Court which makes the response simple if this case isn’t immediately dismissed. The defendants should immediately halt their lawful commerce in the State of WA to avoid any potential future claims against them. Every day this preposterous litigation drags on exposes the companies to more potential liability for otherwise lawful commerce. Clearly their responsibility to shareholders is to minimize risk of some bogus damage award must outweigh other considerations. Sucks for the folks who need fossil fuels in WA … but maybe the public would be willing to convince the ‘adults’ in WA to rein this foolishness in if the public had direct and immediate skin in the game.
“The defendants should immediately halt their lawful commerce in the State of WA to avoid any potential future claims against them.”
Why? To penalize the rest of the residents over a frivolous lawsuit would be wrong. The legal system will adress the matter. No potential liability exists, other than for the plaintiff and her counsel, who should be sanctioned and held responsible for fees and costs incurred to get the action dismissed.
Eh it’s an effective way to reverse the pressure on the plaintiffs.
That said, none of them want to lose the revenue. They might as well though if a joke judge lets this survive a motion to dismiss
Except it’s totally unrealistic and would not pressure these money grubbing political ideoplogues. Shutting down operations will never happen for exactly the reason you say, and because the lawsuit is junk and will not survive.
If, as you claim, here’s zero risk to the companies then the litigation will be immediately dismissed and any commercial impacts will be negligible…precisely b/c the litigation is dismissed before the shut down takes place. However, if the case isn’t immediately dismissed then the trial court is proceeding as if a liability from the lawful commerce does in act exist. Under those circumstances the only way to ensure no additional liability is created within WA.State is to halt operations. If that halt in operation also has the fortuitous side effect of motivating an otherwise apathetic general public to become politically active in pressuring their State Leadership to weigh in and either indemnify the companies or halt the litigation so much the better.
There is virtually zero risk. There is NO proximate cause and no strict liability. Halting operations, which will not happen, would not affect the litigation either and would be an impractical response and overreaction by the companies, who have plenty of means to come out on top and then to seek sanctions .
Of course, the proximate cause was the air conditioning malfunction.
The death would not have occurred in the air conditioner actually worked.
Well then there’s no need for you to get yourself worked into a tizzy about the potential for these companies to proactively eliminate any potential future liability stemming from future operations in WA…b/c the Court will immediately dismiss the case. IOW if you are correct there won’t be a need to suspend operations by following the first rule of holes; if you find yourself in a hole stop digging.
Corporations and individuals react to incentives, both + and – incentives. Go look at CA home insurance market. Golly gee companies look at the legal and regulatory environment and threw deuces. Go review how many Obstetricians packed up and left after big $ IN settlements and dubious jury verdicts against their peers in States where the trial bar successfully kept any reasonable tort reform off the table. Incentives matter, as do electoral choices and linking the two doesn’t seem objectionable.
Not having a tizzy, just stating the obvious. You are the one seeking absurdities and now being condescending. Thanks!
26,
Pointing out the reality that incentives matter and that incentives definitely impact behavior/choices is far from absurd. Sorry if you thought I was condescending, I honestly wasn’t trying to be. I’ve been told I have real talent as a sarcastic, condescending prick so I really work to avoid doing it unthinkingly. Apparently I failed.
Cool. It’s not hard to read into things that are not there, especially in web site comments. However, your examples were distinguishable. They were based on a reality that was actually occurring. They were taken after the fact. They were not founded on a speculative and specious legal theory without causation. Also, even as these acts caused actual pain to consumers, did the insurers suffer? Finally, the action here is frivolous and for the oil companies to act as suggested may lend credence to the argument in the public mind, which is probably worse. It’s not the plaintiff who would be blamed. Better to allow the legal process to expose the extremism and extinguish the matter, of which there seems little doubt.
“get yourself worked into a tizzy about the potential for these companies to proactively eliminate any potential future liability stemming from future operations in WA…b/c the Court will immediately dismiss the case.”
I expect you severely underestimate the current level of political insanity in Washington state.
There is plenty of insanity, yes. This is beyond that. The causes of action are a joke. Do you really think this lawsuit will go anywhere but down the drain?
After reviewing Corbett v. Vickers, I refuse to expect sanity.
That would be just fine by the overlords here in WA. They’d be in a tizzy to see the end of fossil fuels in the state. So while Trump has hammered CA over emissions controls and the state’s attempt to mandate the sale of electric vehicles, WA is headed in the same direction, only more surreptitiously – by slowly but surely increasing the cost of gasoline with taxes and other fees.
IDK that the overlords would be ok sharing the pain with the peasants. Cutting off 100% of fossil fuels means no fuel for private or commercial planes. Kinda difficult to operate fire, police, ambulances without fossil fuels. Same for most shipping.and delivery. Stand by generators would be obsolete. I think the luddite lefty true believing radicals are convenient pawns for the power hungry Marxists who want to use them to destroy the current system and replace it with their own totalitarian vision. Kinda like the wokiesta lefty views on firearms; bad for the ordinary person to have but definitely required for the totalitarian elites and the agents who enforce their writ.
As noted in the article – current global temps are not unusually high if you look at known climate history much past the last 100 years. It’s the same for earth’s current (and postulated future) level of CO2 BTW, despite climate scaremongering it’s been much higher – without earth spiraling into a run-away temp rise and Earth becoming the next Venus.
What IS new and concerning is urban heat traps – between urban removal of natural flora and urban pollution cities can become localized virtual greenhouses. It doesn’t matter if you are living in or driving thru a natural heat trap like Death Valley or an urban one like the LA area or it’s just an entirely natural heat wave – if you know it’s gonna be dangerously hot it’s on YOU to make accommodations.
Every year you will read about vulnerable elderly or other folks killed by unusually (or cold) weather – and it’s not just a modern issue either. Nor is it the fault of Big Oil despite what activists and legal parasites might argue.
Local govts do try to help the most vulnerable – with warnings and “cooling” (or “warming”) centers for those who can’t afford to fully control their home’s temps – NYC has had Free A/C give-aways programs for decades for The Poor – sadly Darwin comes into play even then as many recipients will sell their free A/C units after the then current heatwave ends.
Funny you should mention Venus. Scientists first created the “greenhouse gases” panic by pointing to Venus. It was claimed (and possibly even believed) that Venus is as hot as it is, not because it’s closer to the sun, but because it’s atmosphere is nearly all CO2 (96%).
But Mars’ atmosphere is also nearly all CO2 (95%), yet it’s a frozen planet. Because it’s farther from the sun? Nope.
Better science has long since determined that Venus’ atmosphere is hellishly hot because of it’s pressure, which is 90 times higher than Earth’s. And Mars is as cold as it is because it’s atmosphere has a pressure that’s a fraction of a percent (0.006 atm) of Earth’s (1.0 atm). Atmospheric pressure is the primary determinant of the surface temperatures of the inner planets, not the chemical composition of their atmospheres.
This is probably also why high pressure atmospheric conditions generate heat. Also note that deep mines becoming hotter the deeper they go. This doesn’t happen because they’re closer to geologic heat sources (they’re not, our deepest mines barely penetrate the crust). They get hotter because atmospheric pressure increases as the air column above a particular parcel of air increases.
Dismiss the lawsuit on grounds of public need.
The woman was too stupid to live
And her family is too greedy to be ashamed.
What law firm? What court? What judge has been assigned?
governments run the public utilities
thats whats called a nazi run economy
The plaintiff side acknowledges their client failed to properly maintain their car aircon ??
According to the NYT article, she was actually driving in the heat (no AC) with the windows up before she finally pulled over and rolled the windows down, overcome by the heat. The interior of your car can get up to 120F on an 85 degree day in a half an hour so I’m not sure why this is the oil companies fault?
The decedent sounds like an idiotic Darwin Award finalist, to me.
Another one bites the dust !!!
Her medical condition may be causational.
Delivering pizzas, used to have a regular every week regular elderly customer named “Marion” (same 1st name as my late mom) who I got to know fairly well. Knew she was a diabetic because she would usually order a 2-liter Diet Coke and for that reason would complain if a driver messed up and we sent her a regular Coke instead.
So…. one day I’m delivering to her – in the summer – and as she opens her apartment door I feel a wave of heat hit me FROM the apartment. Concerned, I ask her why it’s so hot inside. She’s a little incoherent but tells me her A/C is broken. Now my one elder sis was diabetic and I’m often her driver (legally too blind to drive) and when her blood sugar crashes she can also get incoherent – to the point when I divert to get some food in her I know it’s better to just get some food in her without asking her to make any decisions like where to go or what to get.
So…. concerned, I get Marion to sit down, plate a slice of pizza and pour a drink for her and I get her permission to take a look at her A/C unit. Turns out it wasn’t broken – she had just been accidentally turning her controls the wrong direction repeatedly trying to get the place cooled down – but instead turning up the heat. After a short time the apt temp became normal again and she was much less confused. Once she looked and acted normal again she tested her sugar level – now normal – and as she didn’t want to call anyone else I felt comfortable going back to work,
Low blood sugar can easily lead to temp poor vision and poor decision making – as it did this time,
So, they want it to be found that it was all those companies ‘ fault that it was so hot that day she couldn’t survive driving in a car with the windows up and no AC.
I’d say it’s a stretch but… well, it’s Seattle.
And she was driving in her car, which was powered by ???? Surely not fossil fuels, maybe Moonbeams?
This is such a contemptible farce. No plausible line of causation can be drawn from oil companies’ conduct to the woman’s death, much less the breach of a duty.
Manifestly frivolous lawsuits such as this should be tossed out immediately after filing, but, we know there are too many Dhimmi-crat activists masquerading as federal judges, who will gladly entertain these malicious and bad faith lawsuits.
Can we sue the Greens over frostbite?
Aren’t people that fart occasionally (Elon?) also to blame?
Its a minor point, but there are very few days in a Seattle summer that require AC. Particularly in older cars, once the air conditioner quits cooling, most people don’t bother to get the system recharged, since that costs money and probably won’t last until the next summer when you may or may not need air conditioning again.
Never had AC in 50 years of living there. You do need it for about 2 weeks a year.
I should be named in the lawsuit because we burned wood for heat from 10/1 to 6/1. Our back up heat was a oil burning furnace which I only burned about 500 gallons in 20 years.
Checked it, Statute of Limitations (ie ‘Drop Dead Date’) for Wrongful Death suits in Washington is 3 years from date of death. I believe they are too late.
More proof that congenital idiocy is a major factor for the “victims.”
I should hope so! The industrial age is generally reckoned to have started in 1740, which was smack in the middle of the Little Ice Age. I should hope that average temperatures are higher now than they were then!
I grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio during the 60’s. We had “heat domes” pass over NE Ohio every summer. Always a couple of weeks of temps in the high 90’s low 100’s. It called climate. The weather changes day to day, month to month, year to year.
Isn’t the urban heat island more a factor than the ‘heat dome’ issue?
According to Wikipedia Seattle is 142.07 sq mi (367.97 km2), much of it concrete, and both the north and south ends of the city flow into other urban/concrete areas. To the east is Lake Washington but there’s more urban/concrete areas past that.
The current average global temperature is vastly cooler than the average historical temperatures claimed by those studying back to the Cretaceous period etc. Hmm wonder if there’s a YEC version of that average temperature?
Seems like a good case could be made that the environment, not the use of fossil fuels, was the proximate cause of the heat, and that current temperatures are uniquely low compared to history!
There have been historic periods of temps higher than they are today, notably the “Roman Climatic Optimum” and the “Medieval Warm Period.” Neither could have been sparked by human activities.
I see far too many shows on TV and read too many books about geology and planetary science that go on an on about natural cycles of warming and cooling, glaciating and interglacial periods (we’re in one now), and so on, but when they come to current warming (if it even actually exists) they insist that this one is anthropogenic.
Correlation isn’t causation. Not a single “climate change” scientist has actually linked any climate phenomenon to human activity. Not one. Their theories and computer simulations can only do one thing – show how anthropogenic climate change might work in the real world. Not one of them has ever demonstrated that this is what is, indeed, happening in the real world.
She died from her own stupidity. She was recovering from a surgery, was already apparently dehydrated and then decided, in a heat wave, to drive a car without a working AC.
The fact that this lawsuit wasn’t tossed out of the court in 5 seconds just demonstrates how much liberal hacks in robes bend over backwards to help leftist causes no matter what actual law says.
Tossed out of what court? It was only filed on Wednesday. No court has yet had a chance to look at it, let alone toss it out.
Referencing the tobacco company lawsuits, my late Father developed Throat Cancer polyp from years of smoking. Fortunately Docs were able to cut it out & he underwent chemo & radiation treatment. As an aside. Mom smoked too, but both quit cold turkey a few years beforehand. He passed away a year later from a stroke I suspect was a result of the chemo & radiation treatments a year earlier (I don’t know nor did I sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night).
I don’t blame nor have I ever blamed the tobacco companies for his death because Dad smoked of his own Free Will as do others who choose that habit . Although I’ve never smoked or dipped chewing tobacco, I would defend to the death, the rights do w/in lawful reason; anything as they please.
So far as the oil corporations, far as I’m concerned is Drill Baby, Drill; Frack Baby, Frack; & strip mine the Earth until nothing but an empty shell is left. @ one time, I had 3,000 shares in one of the oil corporations named in the suit.
If by some wild chance the lawsuit succeeds & oil companies are driven out of Washington state along w/no oil related products being sold there, what does that do to the major military bases in Washington state? Are they exempt or from the ban or would they be forced to close?
If by some chance
I am originally from the late 50s SoCal, but my parents and Grandparents are from Arizona. I spent from 4-13 years old every summer with my Dad’s grandparents, who did a lawn service. My Grandfather had me work with him in the Tucson heat up to 115 degrees usually.
I have been in Washington State and the heat there is nothing compared to Arizona or Nevada. Even if the heat was at it’s worse in Seattle the person could had done things to cooled herself down such as found a building with working A/C or buy cold drinks and use them.
The attempt by Daughter and Lawyers to get money from oil companies is plain stupid. To blame the oil companies on the temperature does not make sense as the heat of the world is based on the position of the Sun and other global factors of what is causing Sunlight on an area.
Just a few observations: a) the woman was 65 years old and likely had pre-existing health issues which are conveniently not described in the Chicken Little climate scaremongering article; b) It was 108 degrees outside—WHY was the woman driving home ALONE from a MEDICAL appointment (so much for family concern?!); and c) how do I file a lawsuit for my lawn turning brown that summer?
The truly sad thing is that there’s a simple, cheap & widely available solution to these folks overheating – it’s called a wet t-shirt.