Photos turned over by Shell show its facility flooding during a December 2022 storm.
November 3, 2023 (PROVIDENCE, RI) – Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) has filed a motion to force Shell Oil to answer basic questions about high-level company involvement at its Providence, Rhode Island terminal. Shell’s waterfront facility in Providence is unprepared for climate risks like flooding and extreme weather, which puts the community at risk of impacts from a massive spill.
“While Shell tries every trick in the book to avoid coming clean about its involvement in the climate crisis, our community is in danger” said Darrèll Brown, Vice President of CLF Rhode Island. “The evidence we have seen shows that the company has left this facility woefully unprepared for extreme weather. Major risks exist now and they’re only going to get worse as the oceans rise and storms intensify.”
The case is now in the discovery phase, where both sides are required to produce information relevant to the lawsuit. Yet Shell has refused to answer questions that implicate high-level Shell parent companies and officials who direct and control operations at the Terminal.
Among the evidence the company has turned over were photos of contaminated areas of the Providence facility flooded with water during a December 2022 storm, which shows how vulnerable the terminal is to weather conditions that will be made worse by climate change.
For more information about the case against Shell, watch this video. This case is part of an ongoing series of CLF lawsuits targeting big oil facilities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
CLF experts are available for further comment.
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