A legal effort to get oil companies to pay for damage linked to climate change is getting a boost this week from California. Imperial Beach and Marin and San Mateo counties filed suit, hoping to force oil companies to pay for climate change impacts caused by their products. The municipalities argue the companies knew about the climate change their products would cause. The state is asking the court to keep the legal challenges in state court, where they stand a better chance of winning. More than a dozen suits around the country argue the energy firms spent years denying climate change impacts they knew would happen.