Big Oil faces mounting lawsuits as extreme weather worsens, with California leading efforts to make fossil fuel giants pay billions of dollars for the climate damage they have long denied.

Across the country, states, cities, tribes and environmental groups have filed dozens of lawsuits against oil companies alleging that they misled the public about the dangers of their products. These cases share a core argument: Oil companies knew fossil fuels were driving climate change and lied about it.

California and other plaintiffs are recycling a legal strategy deployed during the 1990s, when states alleged that tobacco companies knew cigarettes cause cancer. Four large companies settled the cases by paying billions to fund states’ anti-smoking campaigns and other efforts. The manufacturers also must make annual payments to the states as long as they sell cigarettes in the United States.

The settlement set a powerful precedent for using litigation to hold industries accountable for public harm caused by deceptive practices.

“All of these (climate) cases are fundamentally deception cases,” said Benjamin Franta, a professor of climate law at University of Oxford and leader of its Climate Litigation Lab.

For decades, climate cases leaned on environmental laws and regulations rather than corporate accountability, Franta said. But with deception cases, “you can go directly after the private companies,” he said, and “the damages could be enormous.”

But while tobacco lawsuits proved corporations can be held accountable, legal experts say taking on Big Oil presents bigger hurdles.

Michael Gerrard, an environmental law expert at Columbia Law School, said the oil industry, unlike the tobacco industry, is actively supported by government policies, from subsidies to infrastructure investments, that promote oil consumption.

“There are a lot of lawsuits pending, but so far, not a single court in the world has held fossil fuel companies financially responsible for greenhouse gas emissions,” Gerrard said. “It’s highly uncertain whether these cases will ultimately succeed.”

Oil companies say holding them accountable for climate change makes them responsible for an entire economy that depends on their products — a defense that has found traction in some state courts.

“It’s not the oil and gas companies that are actually the direct polluters,” Gerrard said. Liability may have to be assigned along a vast supply chain, from refiners to power plants — even consumers who buy the gasoline, plastics and other products produced from fossil fuels, he said.

“There are a lot of lawsuits pending, but so far, not a single court in the world has held fossil fuel companies financially responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. It’s highly uncertain whether these cases will ultimately succeed.”
— Michael Gerrard, Columbia Law School

Also, while the connection between climate change and fossil fuels has been clearly documented by scientists, the evidence is less definitive linking fossil fuels to specific extreme weather events such as droughts or wildfires. And climate-warming greenhouse gases are global in scope and emitted by a variety of fossil fuels and other sources, not just gasoline and other products manufactured by the oil industry.

In one closely watched climate case in Hawaii, 20 states, including Texas, Wyoming and Alaska, threw their weight behind the oil industry, which asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. The court in January denied that request.

Still, climate liability efforts are gaining traction in some areas, especially in California, following January’s devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, introduced a bill in January that would give homeowners and insurance companies new rights to sue oil companies for climate disasters. Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat from Van Nuys, reintroduced a version of a bill that failed last year, requiring companies to pay for the damage greenhouse gas emissions have caused in California since 1990.

A test case in Honolulu

Climate plaintiffs recently notched a win in January when the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by the oil industry to intervene in the Hawaii lawsuit, allowing cases in state courts to move forward for now. The city and county of Honolulu filed suit in 2020 seeking unspecified damages from Sunoco LP, Exxon Mobil and other oil companies.

In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the oil industry, supported by 20 states, maintained that federal law precludes states’ rights to seek damages from greenhouse gases, which are emitted worldwide. The states, led by Alabama, said Honolulu is violating their rights by “asserting the power to enact disastrous global energy policy via state tort law. Among their demands is that major energy companies stop ‘promoting the sale and use’ of their fuel products.”

The Biden administration argued that the Supreme Court should let the Hawaii proceedings play out in state court.

“The oil companies would love to have this court decide right now that all of these cases should be thrown out. Well, they didn’t get that,” said Pat Parenteau, a law professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School who specializes in climate policy. “So now it’s a case-by-case battle until they can get one of these cases back to the Supreme Court — that’s what their end game is.”

After surviving multiple dismissal attempts, Honolulu’s lawsuit is the furthest along of any state climate lawsuits. The case is entering full discovery, meaning oil companies could soon need to turn over documents and sit for depositions that could be illuminating about their role in climate change, said Corey Riday-White, a managing attorney at the Center for Climate Integrity, which supports efforts to challenge oil companies in court and sponsored Wiener’s legislation.

If a jury delivers a big verdict in the Honolulu case, the pressure to settle will mount, experts say. But the case would almost certainly be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where many justices are seen as favorable to corporate interests. President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is likely to support oil companies.

“Now it’s a case-by-case battle until they can get one of these cases back to the Supreme Court — that’s what (industry’s) end game is.”
— Pat Parenteau, Vermont Law and Graduate School

One major hurdle for climate suit plaintiffs is the industry’s push to move cases to federal courts, where judges have been more inclined than state courts to dismiss them, legal experts said. State courts also have dismissed some recent cases.

California has played a major role in the litigation. In 2023, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and the American Petroleum Institute, alleging that they misled the public about climate change. The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages, penalties and the establishment of an abatement fund to cover future costs.

Franta noted that California’s case could be a game changer.

“California’s case is among the most important,” said Franta of the Climate Litigation Lab. “It’s an enormous jurisdiction, and bringing a very muscular claim against many companies, and under different causes of action. And of course we know there’s a lot of climate-related damages — economic damages and property damages — in California.”

If successful, these cases could set a precedent similar to the tobacco cases, ultimately holding fossil fuel companies accountable.

The American Petroleum Institute did not respond to a request by CalMatters for comment, but in 2023 called California’s lawsuit “meritless” and “politicized,” adding that climate policy should be legislated in Congress and not decided in the courts.

“California’s case is among the most important. It’s an enormous jurisdiction…and we know there’s a lot of climate-related damages — economic damages and property damages — in California.”
— Benjamin Franta, Oxford University’s Climate Litigation Lab

Last year, a judge approved a request by Bonta to coordinate with multiple other California jurisdictions that had sued the oil industry on similar grounds.

Evidence of industry deception

Plaintiffs argue that oil companies misled the public about climate change, and there’s strong evidence they did. But proving those deceptions influenced consumer behavior — or that a better-informed public would have acted differently — is far from straightforward.

“Would they have stopped filling their tanks if a sign at the gas pump said, ‘This fuel contributes to climate change?’” Gerrard asked.

Many experts mark the wave of climate litigation as beginning in 2017, when San Francisco, Oakland and other California municipalities sued major oil companies for deceptive practices, marking a shift from earlier, largely unsuccessful federal claims.

For years, plaintiffs filing climate cases relied on environmental laws and regulations . But now they are focusing on allegations of deception.

Internal documents reveal that by the 1960s, oil companies began predicting fossil fuels could drive catastrophic climate change. Yet, in later decades, as scientists increasingly came to the consensus that burning fossil fuels caused climate change, oil companies ran ads, filed reports and lobbied lawmakers to spread the opposite message — that climate change wasn’t real or wasn’t a big deal.

In the 1970s, Exxon had internal climate research predicting today’s global warming with stunning accuracy. By the early 1980s, the industry knew what was happening, how severe it would be and that fossil fuels were the cause. A pivotal moment came in 2015 when investigative journalists exposed what the industry knew.

Tobacco industry suits focusing on deception also paved the way for lawsuits against other large industries, including opioid manufacturers, big banks after the housing crash and chemical companies for polluting water with “forever chemicals.”

Heat waves and wildfires

In the meantime, the science that links climate change to specific effects has evolved rapidly, now churning out real-time assessments of how much climate change has worsened a given disaster.

The science has changed from one of uncertainty to precise statements like a specific hurricane’s “rainfall was made 40% worse by climate change,” said Kristina Dahl, vice president for Science at Climate Central, which works on quantifying how much climate change is worsening extreme weather.

Because of the evolving science, some cases are also getting more specific. In Oregon’s Multnomah County, a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. and other oil and gas companies zeroes in on the Pacific Northwest’s devastating 2021 heat wave, attempting to link its deadly impact to climate change and seeking $1.55 billion in damages and a $50 billion abatement fund.

Connecting wildfires to fossil fuel companies is particularly difficult, since fires are often ignited by identifiable parties, such as utilities or arsonists, who can be held directly liable.

Former California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has spent years trying to get the insurance industry to acknowledge the financial risks of climate change. But while insurers are quick to pull out of high-risk areas and raise rates, they’ve been far less willing to hold oil companies accountable for the disasters their emissions are fueling.

The insurance industry is facing an existential crisis, Jones said. Wildfires, hurricanes and even newly emerging threats like severe convective storms are making it harder to insure homes and businesses.

Insurance companies are still heavily invested in the industry driving it. According to Jones, U.S. insurers have over half a trillion dollars tied up in fossil fuels.

If oil companies are held financially responsible for disasters, Gerrard of Columbia Law School warned that equity firms or foreign companies with even less concern for climate issues could swoop in.

“If the companies go bankrupt, they’ll be bought by firms that will be happy to drill,” Gerrard said.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

The Redwood Coast Energy Authority has a sometimes conflicting mission: purchase as much renewable energy as possible, but ideally that power is local, and also it needs to be cheap enough to compete with PG&E. And layer onto that state mandates and competition with other power purchasers across the state.

Richard Engel of the Redwood Coast Energy Authority joins the show to talk about the difficulties of trying to meet these goals and a new long-term power agreement with a large solar project in Kern County.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• HUMBOLDT HISTORY: First-Hand Accounts of the Tuluwat Massacre, Which Happened 165 Years Ago This Week

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A complex pattern of displacement and genocide ravaged indigenous communities across the American West through the 1860s. Weaving together Native American voices, government reports, and settler perspectives, a cohesive narrative of this dark chapter in Humboldt’s history can be revealed.

In the days after the Wiyot Massacre, about three hundred Native Americans were congregated at Fort Humboldt.¹ In regions not targeted in the slaughter, such as Mad River (Baduwa’t), Wiyot people continued to inhabit their homes. Agent D. E. Buell came to Arcata in April 1860, where he advocated for the removal of the Wiyot to the Klamath Reservation. Buell invited Baduwa’t leaders to Arcata for a meeting and announced plans for their expulsion:

After urging countless objections against leaving their old homes, and fears for their welfare on the reservation, [the Wiyot] said that they thought they would go, but wanted a little time — two or three days — to make ready. To all this they were answered by the agent and citizens, that if they did not consent to remove, force would be used to compel them; that should any of them succeed in eluding the agent and… [the citizens] at this time, they would henceforth be treated as enemies; that before sunset every Lower-Mad River Indian must be in town ready to start the next morning for the Klamath; that some of the party present were to remain in town while the others would accompany white men to the different camps and rancherias to bring in the balance of the Indians, and that there was to be no more talk on the subject.²

Faced with an impossible choice, Baduwa’t communities collected what they could carry, setting their canoes and homes on fire as they left so that they would not be appropriated by the settlers.³At 4 p.m. that day, the Wiyot gathered in the center of Arcata for the forced removal to Klamath Reservation. Buell then fixed his sights on the Wiyot people who were located at Fort Humboldt. Commanding officer Gabriel J. Rains initially appeared to defend the rights of the Wiyot, but quickly caved to public opinion at the urging of eighty-four settlers.⁴ Nearly 450 people were removed from Humboldt County to the Klamath Reservation.

Jane Searson, a 20-year-old Wiyot survivor, recalled jarring details of the forced march:

I remember about 300 Indians coming back have clothes, they [were] driving the Indian like cattle… [swing] whip like drive catt[le] … [Their] legs were [bleeding] and cut [by] the [whip.] They passed dow[n] the road and I had a good look and seen how th[e]y [were] treate[d]. They were on their way to the Res. They [were] to take my child away if I did not go.⁵

Using physical violence, Lieutenant Hardcastle of Fort Humboldt pushed the victims along rugged backcountry trails at breakneck speeds. Roughly a third of the Wiyot — the sick, young, and elderly — were brought to the point of complete exhaustion.⁶ The number of deaths resulting from this march remains unknown. It should be recognized that not all Wiyot were taken to the reservation: in some cases, people remained in Humboldt as a result of settler marriages and indenture contracts, while others lived in the rural countryside with hopes of avoiding further persecution.⁷ Practically every path taken by Native Americans during this period risked violence or death.

For a brief time the expelled Wiyot lived near the mouth of the Klamath River near a place called Wau-Kell, the reservation headquarters.⁸ People were divided into small villages with eight to twelve acres of farmland. Through these farm communes the Bureau of Indian Affairs intended to disrupt hunter-gatherer methods and replace them with agrarian practices.⁹

Forcibly relocated away from their homes under false promises of “protection,” the Wiyot could not escape the terrible cycle of violence. The source of this abuse was the military personnel of Fort Ter-Waw, located across the river from Wau-Kell.¹⁰ One historian states that those who were detained at Klamath were “continually exposed to the brutal assault of drunken and lawless white men; [the women were] forced, and, if resented, the Indians [were] beaten and shot.”¹¹ Oral accounts affirm that a gallows was built between two redwood trees near the fort and used to hang Native Americans, possibly to execute those who resisted forced agricultural practices.

Inadequate harvests and widespread malnourishment made conditions even worse.¹² In contemporary accounts, the Tolowa have compared the Klamath Reservation to a concentration camp. Indigenous people seized the earliest opportunities to escape the abysmal state of affairs at Wau-Kell. In July 1860, the Humboldt Times stated that the Wiyot were returning to Humboldt Bay, and by the fall of that year “nearly all of the Indians removed to Klamath last spring [had] returned.”¹³ Hundreds of expelled people made the long march home with hopes of returning to the villages that their families had inhabited since time immemorial. Soon after their arrival, however, a renewed expulsion campaign was carried out upon Wiyot communities.

By October 1860, citizens began petitioning for a second removal of returning Native Americans.¹⁴ Settlers took the matter of deportation into their own hands. In Hydesville, a public meeting was held with the goals of “[making] arrangements in relation to the Indians of [Humboldt] county…”¹⁵ Attendees resolved that all Native Americans were to be rounded up and removed to the Klamath Reservation, except for those under the age of ten who were the servants of white households for at least a year, or if they were born outside the county. Vigilantes went door to door, visiting settler households and demanding that they “provide a way and means to send [Indians] to the Reservation.”¹⁶ Among the men involved in the plan were Sheriff Van Nest, George Huestis (nephew of the county judge), and suspected massacre culprit Hank Larrabee.¹⁷

By September 1861, several hundred Wiyot were forcibly congregated at Fort Humboldt through the posse’s efforts. In cooperation with Agent Buell and Colonel Lippitt (commanding officer of Fort Humboldt), Captain H. H. Buhne assumed the role of transferring the Wiyot back to the Klamath Reservation aboard his steamer, the Mary Ann. ¹⁸ Those aboard the Mary Ann arrived at an unfortunate time: an extreme winter storm battered the Northern Californian coast between December 1861 and February 1862.¹⁹ The Humboldt Times on January 25, 1862 wrote, “The [Klamath] Reservation has been inundated five several times since the first of last month, and at each overflow the Klamath rose higher by many feet than any Indian tradition gives account of.”²⁰ One individual observed the churning Klamath River swell 150 feet above its average height, while a Yurok elder suggested that it was the worst flood in living memory.²¹ Due to its low-lying situation, Wau-Kell was doomed by the rising floodwaters.

“[E]very panel of fencing, every Indian village, and every government building, except a barn” had been swept away by the destructive flood.²² To make matters worse, one of the few redeeming factors of the reservation — its fertile topsoil — was now covered in a deep layer of silt, preventing farming for many years to come.²³ The agency’s entire food reserve was destroyed, leaving two thousand Native American people on the verge of starvation in the middle of a winter storm.²⁴ An immediate evacuation was necessary. Superintendent Hanson wrote, “[Native Americans] will either perish for lack of food or return to their old [homes] … [where they will begin] depredations on the settlers’ [live]stock, which they must do from necessity or die. ”²⁵ By the time he made these remarks, hundreds of people were already returning to their ancestral lands throughout Humboldt County.

The Wiyot expulsion to the Klamath Reservation was a catastrophic failure of the federal government on both a moral and logistical scale. The 1861-62 Flood worsened an already awful situation, sparking a humanitarian crisis and mass exodus. As hundreds of starving, displaced people fled the reservation, they returned to Humboldt not as refugees in need of help, but instead as enemies who the settler community actively hunted and killed. This period marked the final phase of the so-called Humboldt Indian “Wars,” in which Native Americans were targets of an atrocious campaign of genocide. Yet these tales of persecution remain unspoken, nearly forgotten by time — perhaps this morbid chapter in our local history has been deliberately hidden by Humboldt’s founding pioneers, the very people who carried out this butchery.

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Ryan Bass is a historian of Yurok-Karuk descent at Cal Poly Humboldt. After receiving the Charles R. Barnum Award for his research on the 1964 Flood and its effects on indigenous communities in Humboldt-Del Norte, he has shifted his research focus to two particular topics: the Hoopa Valley Boarding School (1892-1932) and the California Genocide (1849-1873). Published works regarding these topics are expected to be released later this year.

You like history? Consider a subscription to the Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.

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Brett Delancey Gregory
March 4, 1981 – December 31, 2024

Brett was born on March 4, 1981, to Draper Bell Gregory and Carol Wood Gregory in San Mateo, Calif. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. Brett moved to central California and worked as an emergency medical technician and firefighter. Brett graduated from Humboldt State University in Arcata with a bachelor’s degree in fisheries biology.

While in college, Brett made his home in Trinidad, where he was a volunteer firefighter, an active fisherman and owner of Salty’s Supply Company. Brett was also a fisheries observer for the North Pacific Groundfish fishery out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska in the Bering Sea.

Brett met his wife, Marian, in Trinidad, and was the loving father of Marlow and Carys Gregory. Brett maintained long-term friendships which he made in his youth, college and his days in Trinidad.

Brett was predeceased by his parents. He is survived by his wife, Marian Strong; daughters Marlow and Carys Gregory; brother Scott (Kim) Gregory and nieces Kaia and Emily Gregory of Chico; his in-laws Susan Wood and Santo LaTores of Annapolis, Maryland. Brett is also survived by his mother’s family, with numerous aunts, uncles and cousins in Wisconsin.

A celebration of life will be held saturday, March 8 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Trinidad Town Hall. All are welcome. Please wear your Salty’s gear in memory of Brett. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to The Gregory Girls Education Fund. Send checks payable to Fidelity Investments to: Susan Wood, 338 Broadview Lane, Annapolis, MD 21401 or bring checks to the memorial service.

Heather May Brazil was born on May 8, 1989, in Arcata, to the late Ronald Brazil and Dorcas Marshall. Heather entered into rest on February 21, 2025, after living a life of laughter, love and a few too many sarcastic comments.

Heather attended elementary school and high school in Hoopa, where she graduated as a part of Hoopa High’s Class of 2007. As a member of the Hupa Valley Tribe, she carried her roots with her everywhere — even when she was on the hunt for the perfect meme to share with her friends and family.

A self-proclaimed Harry Potter enthusiast from the moment the first book hit the shelves, Heather was a proud member of Slytherin House. She was convinced it wasn’t just about cunning and ambition — it was about being the best at sarcastic remarks and finding humor in the darkest corners of life. Her wit could make anyone laugh, whether you needed it or not, and she had the ability to quote nearly every movie, often at the most inappropriate times, just to make sure everyone was laughing.

Heather is preceded in death by her sweet baby girl, Serenity Hope, a loss she carried in her heart every single day. She is also preceded in death by her big sister Rebecca Brazil, father Ronald Brazil, cousin Thomas Mosier Jr, maternal grandparents Joseph and Eunice Marshall, and paternal grandparents Ralph and Norma Brazil.

Heather is survived by her children, David and Kylie Cross, her mother Dorcas Marshall, sisters Kathie and Leah Brazil, nieces and nephew Abigael Gulley, Mackenzie Brazil, Trinity and Emelie Cabodi, Rebecca, Caroline, and Brandon Christian, her boyfriend Geno Masten. She also leaves behind her Aunt Dorene Kautsky (George), Uncle Emil Marshall (Darla), Aunt Joann, and too many cousins to name who know they’re probably going to keep hearing her jokes forever, whether they like it or not.

We would like to take a moment to thank everyone who knew and loved Heather, especially those who truly appreciated her one-of-a-kind sense of humor. While her jokes may no longer fill the room, they’ll live on in every sarcastic quip, every movie quote, and every laugh shared in her honor. We also want to express our deep gratitude to the Palliative Care Team and ICU staff at Providence St. Joseph Hospital for the extraordinary care they provided Heather in her final days. Their compassion and support meant the world to us.

A celebration of life is scheduled for 1 p.m. on March 8 in Hoopa at the Legion Hall. In true Heather fashion, this gathering will be a time to share her unforgettable quotes and stories — the more sarcastic, the better. Come ready to laugh, reminisce and celebrate the incredible person Heather was.

On the morning of December 21, 2024, Mom passed away peacefully after a recurring battle with cancer, surrounded by her family.

Carol was born in Indiana and raised in Arkansas and Chicago, Illinois. While in her 20s mom headed west to California, as many young people do, and landed in San Diego. After a couple years she relocated to Humboldt County in the late 1960s. She took a clerical job with the County of Humboldt at the County Court House in Eureka. In 1970, she purchased her first home, a small two-bedroom house on Fickle Hill Road in Arcata. Not long thereafter, Carol was introduced to her future husband and our father, Edward Schillinger through mutual friends. They were married at their house surrounded by friends, family and Redwood trees in 1973. A reception followed at Merryman’s Beach House at Moonstone Beach. Carol and Ed acquired an adjacent property and later built their dream home to have room to raise their four active children. Jake, Max, Gus, and Emilie are convinced that our beloved mother is now in heaven and yelling at our father Ed (AKA Pop) to come up from his tinkering on instruments and equipment in the “barn” (his workshop) to get in the house before his dinner ran cold.

Mom was heavily involved in her children’s schooling and was President of the PTO at Jacoby Creek School in the 1980s, where she was proud of the education that was provided. She was a fixture at her children’s numerous sporting events: track and field, bicycling, cross country, swimming, soccer, baseball, basketball, and triathlons. One year, she remembered she had kept scorebook for an astonishing 83 games for the kids. She loved hearing her youngest son talk about basketball from his coaching. Mom also dabbled in politics on various campaigns. Her working career culminated with a stint as a Medical Liaison-Social Worker for the County of Humboldt. She was heavily invested in equality and opportunities for all people that wanted to better themselves. She had a unique and innate ability to communicate with young and old, and all backgrounds. It stemmed from being well read and versed in life’s experiences. Mom possessed tremendous wisdom. Additionally, her cooking and baking was raved about, and at times did so for large groups of family and friends.

After living in Arcata for well over 40 years, she purchased a second home to be closer to her sister Linny and help her take care of their aging mother. She was able to find a delightful house and create new friendships on her mature tree lined cul-de-sac in Southwest Illinois near St Louis, MO and owning this house allowed mom to return to her Midwestern roots. The hospitality and mom’s gregariousness were the ideal fit for that neck of the woods. A neighbor said that when she moved in, she became a force and transformed the neighborhood in a positive manner. While Mom split time between her Illinois house and her home on Fickle Hill in Arcata, she always considered Arcata as her primary residence. To mom, Arcata was always home. It was the place where she had put down roots and raised her family after all.

Always putting family first, Carol finally achieved her own longstanding goal of traveling to Ireland, which she did in the summer of 2024 with her daughter-in-law and granddaughter. She was completely thrilled by the journey.

Lastly, mom loved plants and gardening. She could spend hours toiling and caring for them. Her garden was her happy place and a source of joy, care, and growth. She was simply delighted to work and talk about them.

When mom became sick, her wittiness, humor and storytelling was quite a fixture for the medical personnel and epitomized her personality for all of those who met her during her time on Earth.

Mom’s life was a blessing to all of us.

Carol is proceeded in death by her father John Jacks, mother Beatrice Jacks, Brother William “Bill” Jacks, husband Edward “Ed” Schillinger, nephew Scott DeLisio, and her beloved sister Linny DeLisio. Carol is survived by her youngest brother John Jacks (jr.), children Jakob “Jake” Schillinger (Alicia), Max Schillinger (Kristine), August “Gus” Schillinger (Devon), and Emilie Schillinger-Themens (Justin), grandchildren Alex, Anna, Dexter, and Brooklyn, and along with numerous other nephews and cousins.

A private memorial with family will be held at her Arcata home on Saturday, May 31, during which some of her cremated remains will be spread on the family property per her wishes.

A celebration of life for Carol will be held on Sunday June 1, 2025, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka. All friends of Carol are invited to share stories and celebrate her memory.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Carol Schillinger’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

(AUDIO) Cassandra Hesseltine on KHUM

Cassandra Hesseltine would like to get fancy with you this weekend.

For the 10th consecutive year, the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commissioner is inviting the community to glam it up and head to the Eureka Theatre at 3:30 p.m. this Sunday for the 10th Annual Red Carpet Gala, which, among other enticements, features a screening of a certain mega-important Hollywood awards show. Hmm! It’s your annual opportunity to forego your standard Carhartt ensemble and live like a star!

But it’s not all red carpet-life for Cassandra. In her 15 years as commissioner, she has corralled the various film productions looking to use Humboldt and its natural beauty as the backdrop for their movies, both large and small. And with California’s industry facing challenges, Hesseltine feels a responsibility to help Humboldt become even-more attractive to filmmakers ambitious enough to make the trek up to our neck of woods. 

Want to hear her vision? Listen to her recent interview with KHUM’s Jordan Dobbins by clicking the player above. Topics discussed include:

• How Cassandra came to be the film commissioner for our area
• What her job entails
• What it would take for dreams of a Redwood Coast Sound Stage could become a reality and why it would be attractive to outside productions. 
• Plans for this Sunday’s red carpet gala
• More!

PREVIOUS JORDAN DOBBINS:

• (AUDIO) Want to See a Humboldt-Made Short Horror Film? Emerging Local Filmmaker River Sky Keller Would Love to See You at The Minor on Saturday