The prosecution bill targeting climate change deniers sidelined by the California Senate
Posted on: Thursday, June 16, 2016 CommentsAs it turns out, a landmark bill allowing for the prosecution of climate change dissent completely died after the California Senate failed to take it up before the deadline.
As for the Senate Bill 1161, or the California Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act of 2016, it would have authorized prosecutors to sue fossil fuel companies, think tanks and others that have "deceived or misled the public on the risks of climate change".
The measure, which cleared two Senate committees, provided a four-year window in the statute of limitations on violations of the state’s Unfair Competition Law, allowing legal action to be brought until Jan. 1 on charges of climate change "fraud" extending back indefinitely.
"This bill explicitly authorizes district attorneys and the Attorney General to pursue UCL claims alleging that a business or organization has directly or indirectly engaged in unfair competition with respect to scientific evidence regarding the existence, extent, or current or future impacts of anthropogenic induced climate change", stated the state Senate Rules Committee’s floor analysis of the bill.
Justice association President Kim Stone said she was pleased that the state Senate "realized this bill was extreme".
Ms. Stone has stated: "Our concern about the bill is that by eliminating the statute of limitations and reviving claims from forever in the past, it’s fundamentally unfair".
According to Ms. Stone: "This bill would be as if the IRS now said that we could audit you for the first year you filed your taxes, or your parents’ taxes, or even for your grandparents’ taxes. Would you have the documentation required to defend yourself if you were accused of having done something wrong?"... "No, nobody would have saved their papers because everyone knows the IRS has three years to audit you."
A coalition of 17 state attorneys general, including California Attorney General Kamala Harris, have joined forces to pursue climate change skeptics. At least four prosecutors reportedly have launched investigations into Exxon Mobil for climate change "fraud".
The group, which had no immediate comment on the bill’s failure, had argued that the measure was needed to challenge efforts to "confuse consumers and fend off competition from lower-carbon energy sources".
Stephen Frank, editor of the conservative California Political Review, called the bill a "totalitarian statement by Democrats that the First Amendment is now dead".
“Did you donate to the Pacific Legal Foundation? Do you support Americans for Prosperity? Are you a member of the California Republican Party, which has a platform approving of all forms of energy, including fossil fuel (oil)? Do you work for a gas station, an oil company, have you written a letter to the editor in favor of oil drilling?” said Mr. Frank. "If so, you could find yourself with being charged in a court of law, thanks to S.B. 1161", he wrote.
Read more, at: www.washingtontimes.com/news/
Source: washingtontimes.com
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