Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
How do we take Big Oil to the criminal courts?
There's been a major wave of climate litigation over the past 12 months, mostly in civil courts. But groups around the world are figuring out how to make polluting the planet a criminal offence. They're targeting the fossil fuel industries to attempt what governments, so far, are failing to do: Hold Big Oil to account, and stop them dead in their tracks before the whole world goes up in smoke.
Aaron Regunburg is is a lawyer and progressive politician who served as a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. Since leaving government, Aaron has become a progressive organiser, serving as senior policy counsel with Public Citizens climate program. Aaron joins me to discuss the legal case they're building in order for local and state courts to take big oil companies to criminal trial for their part in causing climate change and human death. He explains the legal layout of those cases, the precedent of criminal liability, what a positive result of these cases could look like, and the different strategies and going after both companies as legal entities and individual CEOs and board members as criminal defendants.
🔴 Public Citizen: citizen.org
🌎 Support Planet: Critical: patreon.com/planetcritical
🌎 Subscribe: planetcritical.com
🌎 BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/racheldonald.bsky.social
How do we take Big Oil to the criminal courts?
There's been a major wave of climate litigation over the past 12 months, mostly in civil courts. But groups around the world are figuring out how to make polluting the planet a criminal offence. They're targeting the fossil fuel industries to attempt what governments, so far, are failing to do: Hold Big Oil to account, and stop them dead in their tracks before the whole world goes up in smoke.
Aaron Regunburg is is a lawyer and progressive politician who served as a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. Since leaving government, Aaron has become a progressive organiser, serving as senior policy counsel with Public Citizens climate program. Aaron joins me to discuss the legal case they're building in order for local and state courts to take big oil companies to criminal trial for their part in causing climate change and human death. He explains the legal layout of those cases, the precedent of criminal liability, what a positive result of these cases could look like, and the different strategies and going after both companies as legal entities and individual CEOs and board members as criminal defendants.
🔴 Public Citizen: citizen.org
🌎 Support Planet: Critical: patreon.com/planetcritical
🌎 Subscribe: planetcritical.com
🌎 BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/racheldonald.bsky.social
