Diane Butler: Left with no choice, Annapolis was right to sue oil companies over climate change

Mayor Gavin Buckley announced last week that the City of Annapolis was suing 26 oil and gas companies for damages the city has and will continue to incur due to climate change. The mayor had no other choice but to sue. A trifecta of failures — legislative, economic and ethical — have brought Annapolis, and communities everywhere, to a precarious point. The first failure was legislative: For decades, federal and state governments failed to pass legislation and enforce regulations to significantly curb greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, they gave nearly free reign, and in many cases, encouraged the worst impulses of the fossil fuel industry. Despite recent attempts by governments to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels, the United States still gets approximately 80% of its energy from coal, oil and gas, and Maryland’s reliance on these non-renewables remains high.