A coalition of 18 state attorneys general gathered on Tuesday at a meeting convened by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who in November announced a state investigation into Exxon after an investigative report had revealed the fossil fuel company had known for years about the dangers of fossil fuels to the environment and had kept this information from the public.
At a press conference that included six of his counterparts, their ranks bolstered by aides from 10 additional states, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia, Schneiderman opened by saying, “The First Amendment, ladies and gentlemen, does not give you the right to commit fraud.”
After saying the fraud issue would be handled just as with any other case of fraud, reports EcoWatch, Schneiderman added, “The scope of the problem we are facing, the size of the corporate entities and their alliances, the trade associations and other groups, is massive and it requires a multistate effort.”
To say that the scope of the investigation is massive is an understatement. Not only are fossil fuel companies involved, but so too are other corporate entities, as well as well-funded lobby groups. Greenpeace International revealed in December 2015 that professors at leading U.S. universities were paid to write papers that were critical of climate change, according to Digital Journal.
One of the corporate entities that have been involved in spreading untruths and the seeds of doubt and mistrust on climate change is the Koch brothers. They have been funding their vast corral of climate-denial activist organizations to the tune of $79 million. The Greenpeace investigation was additional proof of the under-the-table goings-on of big corporations and their funding of dubious and quite often, unsubstantiated claims of the benefits of CO2 and fossil fuels.
Schneiderman has also demanded that Exxon hand over documents on their climate change research and communications covering a span of almost four decades. He also made it clear that the coalition stands behind President Obama’s climate policies and in particular, the Clean Power Plan.
Schneiderman added, “If there are companies—whether utilities or fossil fuel companies—committing fraud in an effort to maximize their short-term profit at the expense of the people we represent, we want to find out about it and want to expose it and we want to pursue them to the fullest extent of the law, prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”
Some legal experts, according to Reuters, are saying that with the issues involved, the investigation could turn into a federal racketeering and organized crime (RICO) case, just like the landmark case against big tobacco.
“The investigations targeting our company threaten to have a chilling effect on private sector research,” Exxon’s vice president of public and government affairs, Suzanne McCarron, said in a lengthy statement on its website. The company also responded on Twitter, saying the allegations of climate deceit are “preposterous” and “politically motivated and baseless,” and that it is looking at its legal options.
