Last month, the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe sued Seattle City Light, which calls itself the “nation’s greenest utility,” claiming that the public electric utility’s environmental claims were untruthful. Despite generating 80 percent of its electricity is from hydropower — which produces no direct greenhouse gas emissions — the utility’s hydroelectric dams on the Skagit River are harming fish populations, according to the lawsuit.
“They are greenwashing, and they’re deceiving the public,” said Nino Maltos, chair of the Sauk-Suiattle tribe. “Their dams are killing off the fish that we rely on.”
The tribe’s lawsuit follows a slew of other legal actions from consumers, advocacy groups, and states over alleged greenwashing — “a tidal wave” of cases, according to Zorka Milin, senior legal counsel for the international nonprofit Global Witness. Such cases tend to invoke a combination of state-level tort and consumer protection laws, which together can link deceptive advertising to financial, physical, or emotional harm. While the jury is still out on how successful these lawsuits can be, legal experts are hopeful that they can play a role in holding corporation... Read more
