Reuters is reporting that Wednesday’s decision constitutes a legal victory for AG Healey, who is investigating the world’s largest publicly traded oil company’s climate policies.
Taking to Twitter after the decision, Healey said, “This order affirms our longstanding authority to investigate fraud,” adding that Exxon “must come clean about what it knew about climate change.”
Healey is not alone in her quest for the truth. She was joined last year by fellow Democrat and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, demanding documents from Exxon dating back to 1976. The Dallas News reports that a similar case is pending in Texas, where the oil company is trying to get the court to quash Healey and Schneiderman subpoenas of its documents related to climate change.
Healey is trying to determine if the Irving, Texas-based company deceived its shareholders and consumers by hiding what it knew about the link between fossil fuels and climate change. It’s believed that Exxon knew about the impact its business had on the environment as far back as 1977.
Readers may remember that in October 2015, Digital Journal reported on an eight-month-long investigation into ExxonMobil by InsideClimateNews.
The investigation presented some damning evidence that claimed ExxonMobil executives had prior knowledge of the climate impact of fossil fuels and chose to not make the information public. This investigation renewed the legal challenges into the company’s business practices.
This latest blow to Exxon came out on the same day that former Exxon Chief Executive Rex Tillerson faced a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state.
Asked if he believed human activity was contributing to climate change, Tillison gave the typical politician’s answer, saying, “The increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are having an effect. Our abilities to predict that effect are very limited.”
And Exxon is given the final word regarding the order to turn over its climate change documents. Engadget is reporting that Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said the company was “reviewing the decision to determine next steps.”
Here’s a thought for everyone to ponder – If the documents don’t have any evidence that Exxon knew fossil fuels were responsible for changes in our environment, then the company has no reason to turn them over, right?
But, if those documents confirm the company was hiding the link between climate change and the use of fossil fuels from its investors and the public, well, that will be a whole new kettle of beans.
