A 65-year-old brewery owner in Bend, Oregon, is at the center of a $50 billion climate fight that's now drawn in Congress. The New York Times profiles Roger Worthington, a former asbestos lawyer turned climate litigator who's helping Multnomah County—home to Portland—sue major oil companies over a 2021 heat wave that killed 69 people. The lawsuit by Worthington—called "a champion among environmental activists and a villain to the Trump administration" by Politico—argues that the extreme heat was worsened by fossil fuel companies' efforts to obscure the dangers of global warming, and it stands out among dozens of climate cases because it pins liability to a single deadly event.
Worthington's high-profile role and history of funding environmental work have turned him into a target for House Republicans, who are investigating whether a judicial training guide produced by the Environmental Law Institute was used to sway judges in climate cases. The institute says it doesn't coordinate with litigants, and Worthington denies any improper ties to the group (the Wall Street Journal is skeptical on that claim), calling the inquiry an attempt to chill climate litigation. "If anything, their efforts to intimidate me backfired," he tells the Times. "They poked the bear." Meanwhile, oil companies are pressing a judge to dismiss the Portland case altogether. Worthington was set to appear in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
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