In Oklahoma’s case against Johnson & Johnson in relation to the opioid crisis, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter used an argument that could also be applied to Oklahoma’s oil and gas companies and how they are deceiving us about the long term and lethal effects of their production processes and their product for Oklahomans and all of human civilization.
Like the pharmaceutical companies, the oil and gas companies have deceived us for self profit that has led to grave societal harm. They have deceived us about wastewater induced earthquakes, supported merchants of doubt to lie to us about the reality of our climate crisis, and attempted to block any meaningful regulations on the environmental impact of their industry.
The oil and gas companies have even sought to weaken academic freedom at our colleges and universities by buying university and college presidents and in more than one case giving them millions of dollars in direct payments to serve as paid directors on their boards. In other cases, oil and gas companies influence Boards of Regents and Boards of Trustees to simply place oil and gas company executives as the presidents of the universities. The oil and gas companies attempted to squash dissent by academics who were exposing and telling the truth about wastewater induced earthquakes and who openly resist the lies being told by the fossil fuel industry about climate change.
Oklahoma Attorney General Hunter described Johnson & Johnson’s conduct in misleading the public about the addictive nature of opioids as “devious and diabolical.” Attorney General Hunter, congratulations on your work to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable for its role in the opioid crisis in Oklahoma. Congratulations on the verdict that Johnson & Johnson is to pay $572 million for the damage it has done to the people of Oklahoma. When will you be taking Devon Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Continental Resources, and others to court to hold them accountable for their devious and diabolical role in our climate crisis and for the millions of dollars of damages from earthquakes that their industry unleashed on our state?
One World House - Mark Davies 