Woman sues oil giants for death of mom who died in heat wave, her ‘climate’ backers have DEEP pockets

A loopy Seattle woman who’s backed by the Rockefeller Family Fund has sued major oil/gas companies, claiming they’re somehow to blame for the 2021 heat wave that killed her mother.

Misti Leon lost her mother, 65-year-old Juliana, during a deadly heat wave/dome that struck four summers ago.

“On June 28, 2021, an unusual heat wave culminated in a 108-degrees Fahrenheit (42.22 degrees Celsius) day — the hottest ever recorded in the state,” according to Seattle station KING.

“[Juliana] had just driven 100 miles from her home in Ferndale for an appointment, and she rolled down her windows on the way back because her car’s air conditioning wasn’t working,” the reporting continues.

A Washington state woman is suing seven oil companies, saying they contributed to the 2021 heat wave that caused her mom’s death. https://t.co/8xpyHkCROp

— KING 5 News (@KING5Seattle) May 30, 2025

At some point, she pulled over and parked in a residential area. She was found unconscious behind the wheel shortly thereafter and subsequently declared dead.

Leon is now convinced that oil/gas giants like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, and BP subsidiary Olympic Pipeline Company are to blame for her mother’s death.

In a suit filed this week, she accuses the oil/gas giants of knowing that their products have been altering the climate and contributed to the heat wave that killed her mother.

“Defendants knew that their fossil fuel products were already altering the earth’s atmosphere,” the compliant reads. “By 1968, Defendants understood that the fossil fuel-dependent economy they were creating and perpetuating would intensify those atmospheric changes, resulting in more frequent and destructive weather disasters and foreseeable loss of human life.”

“The extreme heat that killed Julie was directly linked to fossil fuel-driven alteration of the climate,” it continues.

Leon is backed in her efforts by Lee Wasserman, the director of the Rockefeller Family Fund:

Important moment for climate accountability— first wrongful death suit filed against oil companies. https://t.co/cWeDf61gcs via @NYTimes

— Lee Wasserman (@leehwasserman) May 29, 2025

Critics say it’s a bit ironic given as the Rockefellers were themselves oil barons.

Rockefeller

Rockafeller was an oil tycoon. Rothschild owned almost all railroads in America & gave Rockafeller a mega discount for using his railways to transport oil in the late 1800s & so a partnership was formed. pic.twitter.com/QJDf6Q1nLc

— Lightbringerflex – Stop paying taxes. (@LBF777) April 27, 2020

Leon’s also backed by the so-called Center for Climate Integrity.

“Big Oil companies have known for decades that their products would cause catastrophic climate disasters that would become more deadly and destructive if they didn’t change their business model,” the center’s president, Richard Wiles, said in a statement.

“But instead of warning the public and taking steps to save lives, Big Oil lied and deliberately accelerated the problem,” he added.

The oil/gas giants meanwhile have been pushing back hard.

“Exploiting a personal tragedy to promote politicized climate tort litigation is contrary to law, science, and common sense,” Chevron Corporation counsel Theodore Boutrous Jr. said in a statement.

“The court should add this far-fetched claim to the growing list of meritless climate lawsuits that state and federal courts have already dismissed,” he added.

There’s also been pushback on social media, where critics believe that Leon is a loopy, radicalized woman — one who’s clearly being exploited by the anti oil/gas left for political gain.

I would like to sue her daughter. Why did she not do more to make her mom healthier? Clearly she was aware of environmental risks. I should have standing. I personally suffered from having to read about her idiotic lawsuit.

— Gerbil (@surelyagerbil) May 29, 2025

And, as @skdh points out, the headline grabbing “heat wave 3x more likely due to climate change” is often based on pseudoscience and the papers the headlines often base those claims on usually admit as much themselves

— Whitney Tilson for NYC (@yaakovgrunsfeld) May 29, 2025

Morbidly obese woman dies in heatwave, her daughter sues oil companies.

Why not sue the consumers too? Don’t they have some complicity here?

Environmental lunatics can’t get the policies they want through democracy, so are trying to get deindustrialization through courts. pic.twitter.com/61qClpyjWa

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) May 29, 2025

“This is among the most absurd movements among climate activists,” one critic tweeted. “Heat waves occur quite naturally on their own, and they can develop for many different reasons.”

“These leftists just want to fight the companies, mostly because they don’t like wealth. But we’d be in a similar climate situation, perhaps even worse, if these companies didn’t exist. If they didn’t exist, and if historically there had been no supply bottlenecks due to competition between suppliers, we would likely presently use our fuels a lot less efficiently,” he added.

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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