California’s new attorney general is being urged to continue a climate fraud investigation of ExxonMobil by a host of the state’s Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives who say the oil giant and other fossil fuel companies have misled the public regarding climate change.
Eighteen representatives have asked Attorney General Xavier Becerra to build on an investigation they say was opened by his predecessor, Kamala Harris, into early research by Exxon and other fossil fuel companies that confirmed the risks of climate change. The companies went on to support campaigns that muddied the scientific consensus on global warming due to fossil fuels.
“You now have a unique opportunity to play a leading role in that effort, and we urge you to work to hold Exxon Mobil and others accountable for their longstanding, and potentially illegal, cover-up of the dangers of climate change,” according to the letter signed by the representatives.
“We urge you to vigorously and publicly continue the state’s investigation into what ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies knew about the dangers of climate change, and what they did with that vital information.”
Becerra is a Democrat who served 12 terms in the U.S. House before becoming California’s attorney general last month, replacing Harris, who was elected to the U.S. Senate. (He is one of 15 state attorneys general who has joined in a friend-of-the-court brief opposing President Trump’s travel ban.)
Becerra did not respond to a request to comment.
Although Harris never acknowledged an Exxon investigation, she was one of 17 Democratic state attorneys general who formed the AGs United For Clean Power coalition last year, vowing to hold the fossil fuel industry responsible for climate change.
Two coalition members, Eric Schneiderman of New York and Maura Healey of Massachusetts, have launched investigations of Exxon under their states’ consumer fraud statutes. Exxon is waging a vigorous court battle to derail those investigations.
About This Story
Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.
That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.
Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.
Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?
Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.
Thank you,
David Hasemyer
Reporter, San Diego
Inside Climate News reporter David Hasemyer is from the red rock country of Southeastern Utah where he grew up and learned to appreciate the importance responsible stewardship of the environment. He is co-author of the Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of, which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and co-authored the 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist series “Exxon: The Road Not Taken.” Prior to joining ICN, Hasemyer had an award-wining tenure at The San Diego Union-Tribune as an investigative reporter. Hasemyer’s newspaper work has been recognized by the Associated Press, the Society for Professional Journalists, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. He also has been a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Social Justice and Human Rights. PGP key: http://ow.ly/iEHN3089Gqg
