Three years of after a major climate litigation effort collapsed in Canada, campaign supporters are once again trying their luck after the city of Vancouver recently voted to set aside more than half-million dollars to pay for the cost of litigation.

The Vancouver Sun reported:

“Vancouver council has voted 6-5 in favour of spending up to $660,000 to participate in a proposed legal action that will ask the world’s major oil companies to pay municipalities to help cover climate-change related costs like seawall repairs and protections from extreme heat.”

The vote to entertain the possibility of lawsuit was far from unanimous, however, and it required the mayor to break a tie among council members, and the Vancouver Sun made it clear this wasn’t not an organic, local effort but rather driven by a major anti-energy activist group:

“The idea of a class-action lawsuit being brought by municipalities against major oil companies is advocated by the Vancouver-based West Coast Environmental Law’s recently launched Sue Big Oil campaign.”

WCEL has even set up a campaign for climate litigation called “Sue Big Oil” and is actively pressuring local governments in recent months.

Read the full blog at EIDClimate.org.