ExxonMobil Investigated for Lying to Public on Climate Change

New York’s attorney general is investigating whether ExxonMobil Corp. actively hid the financial risks of climate change from the public while funding studies on the harm of its business on the environment.

While the oil company acknowledged the rise of global warming since the 1980s, it launched a multi million-dollar campaign in the 1990s to "emphasize the uncertainty." 

The strategy threw money behind newspaper ads, scientific studies and libertarian groups that challenged mainstream conclusions about climate change and insisted on the economic importance of the oil industry.

Similar lawsuits have been unsuccessful, but this larger-scale probe, supported by Democrat presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, is seen as potentially launching years of litigation and public shaming, as was previously conducted against the tobacco industry.

ExxonMobil has been the biggest producer of natural gas in the United States since 2009. The same year, it supported legislation on reducing carbon emissions and imposing a carbon tax, which supported its business because oil releases less carbon dioxide than coal.

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Still, ExxonMobil spokesman Ken Cohen said in a press call Thursday that the company supports U.S. abstention from the Kyoto Protocol. Such treaties, it found, would lead to "financially burdensome policies" and change the nature of the industry, reported the Los Angeles Times.

When a shareholder proposed that Exxon reduce carbon dioxide emissions in 1990, the board of directors shut him down, according to the investigation, which was conducted with Columbia University’s Energy and Environmental Reporting Fellowship.

Arguments on the disruptiveness of climate change policy to the global economy are often used against growing demands for divestment from fossil fuels. Advocacy groups have responded that the stocks of fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil are likely overvalued, since climate change policy puts limits on their extraction and profit.

ExxonMobil said in a statement that it received the subpoena for research and business decisions dating back to 1977, but that it is still considering how to respond. It has publicly denied allegations that the company suppressed information on the risks of climate change.

The New York attorney general has been investigating the company for a year, reported the New York Times, but newly-released information is deepening the probe into the extent to which executives misrepresented or withheld information, which is against regulation.

ExxonMobil headquarters are in Irving, Texas, but the Martin Act allows New York to prosecute any company doing business in the state. Peabody Energy Corporation, the U.S.'s largest producer of coal, is also under investigation by the Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.