Supreme Court Blocks ExxonMobil's Effort to Conceal Decades of Documents in Probe of Oil Giant's Climate Deception

authordefault
on

Byย Jessica Corbett, Commonย Dreams

The high court’s ruling means the company must hand over records to the Massachusetts attorney general for her ongoingย investigation

In a win for climate campaigners and Massachusetts’ Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected ExxonMobil’s attempt to block Healey’s demand for documents related to her state’s ongoing investigation into allegations that one of the world’s largest oil and gas corporations deceived the public and investors for decades about how fossil fuels drive globalย warming.

โ€œThe public deserves answers from this company about what it knew about the impacts of burning fossil fuels, and when,โ€ Healey said,ย respondingย on Twitter to the ruling. This victory, she added, โ€œclears the way for our office to investigate Exxon’s conduct toward consumers andย investors.โ€

The news, whichย followedย a Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling against the company in April, was also welcomed by climate activists โ€” including 350.org U.S. communications manager Thanu Yakupitiyage, whoย thankedย Healey โ€œfor her vigilant leadership in standing up for people overย polluters.โ€

โ€œExecutives at Exxon knew about climate change decades ago, but they chose to lie to the rest of us to line their oily pockets,โ€ Yakupitiyage declared. โ€œNow, it’s those who have done the least to cause the problem who are paying the cost of this deception through our lives and livelihoods. In 2019, we’ll use all our power to make sure Big Oil pays its fair share for climateย destruction.โ€

Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity, celebrated the high court’s decision and said that the company’s failed attempt to block Healey from obtaining internal records indicates concern over what the documents could mean for legal attempts to take the company to court over its alleged climateย deception.

โ€œExxon’s last ditch effort to avoid turning over additional documents to investigators suggests the company has a whole lot more it’s still hiding from the public, shareholders, and policymakers,โ€ heย noted.

Wiles also posited that โ€œExxon fears nothing more than the truth these documents will reveal: that they have known for 50 years that their products cause climate change, and ran a massive deception campaign to confuse the public about it, consequences beย damned.โ€

Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org,ย saidย in response to the ruling on Monday, โ€œThis is an importantย moment.โ€

As theย #ExxonKnew campaign โ€” run by a coalition of groups that aim to hold the company accountable โ€” concluded, โ€œNo one is above theย law.โ€

Despite aย series of damning investigative reportsย in recent years, ExxonMobil has dismissed allegations of deception as โ€œmeritlessโ€ and continued to battle against probes launched by the attorneys general of Massachusetts and New York as well as the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), whichย endedย its investigation in August without any furtherย action.

New York’s Democratic Attorney General Barbara Underwood, meanwhile,ย officially filed suitย against ExxonMobil October, claiming the oil giant โ€œbuilt a faรงade to deceive investors into believing that the company was managing the risks of climate change regulation to its business when, in fact, it was intentionally and systematically underestimating or ignoring them, contrary to its publicย representations.โ€

As Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) pointed out in a statement on Monday, โ€œThe millions of pages of documents Exxon was compelled to turn over in the New York investigation evidenced widespread malfeasance reaching the highest levels of the company, and they led the New York attorney general to sue the company onย multiple counts of securities fraud.โ€

However, Muffett continued, โ€œtheย Massachusetts investigationย poses an even bigger risk for the company because the pool of Exxon’s potential victims includes not only seven million citizens and consumers in Massachusetts, but also untold tens of millions more living in states with nearly identical consumer protectionย laws.โ€

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. It originally appeared on Common Dreams.

Main image: Activitists have been calling on ExxonMobilย to reveal the oil giants’ย knowledge of itsย products’ impacts on the climate through theย #ExxonKnewย campaign. Credit:ย Reana Kovalcik,ย CC BYNCSAย 2.0

authordefault

Related Posts

on

DeSmog estimates raise questions over climate benefits as EU officials consider whether the technology should qualify for billions of euros in subsidies.

DeSmog estimates raise questions over climate benefits as EU officials consider whether the technology should qualify for billions of euros in subsidies.
Analysis
on

Experts accuse Farageโ€™s party of a โ€˜deliberate campaign of misinformation about climate changeโ€™ in the House of Commons.

Experts accuse Farageโ€™s party of a โ€˜deliberate campaign of misinformation about climate changeโ€™ in the House of Commons.
on

A Conservative peer and former UK trade advisor were among those who spoke at the summit.

A Conservative peer and former UK trade advisor were among those who spoke at the summit.
on

All Conservative appointees to the Board of Trade have been binned by the new Labour government.

All Conservative appointees to the Board of Trade have been binned by the new Labour government.