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.
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
