Exxon Seeking Injunction Against Climate-Change Investigation
June 15 2016 - 04:20PM
Dow Jones News
Exxon Mobil Corp. is seeking an injunction against the
Massachusetts attorney general, alleging that a wide-ranging
investigation into the oil company is politically motivated and
violates its constitutional rights.
Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, wants to block a Massachusetts
subpoena that sought documents relating to climate change science
research and investor communications on the topic dating back 40
years. The company filed its motion on Wednesday in a federal court
in the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Massachusetts
Attorney General Maura Healey and U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney
General Claude Walker are all investigating whether Exxon
misrepresented its understanding of climate change to investors and
the public. The company has already turned over hundreds of
thousands of pages of documents to Mr. Schneiderman.
Exxon called Ms. Healey's allegations "nothing more than a weak
pretext for an unlawful exercise of government power to further
political objectives," the company wrote in the filing.
Exxon also said that the subpoena violates its right to free
speech, Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and
seizure and the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause.
Ms. Healey's office is reviewing the motion, a spokeswoman for
her office said.
The 33-page injunction filing is the company's most sharply
worded rebuttal so far to investigations launched last year into
what Exxon has known about climate change since the 1970s.
Republican lawmakers have criticized the probes into Exxon by
Democratic state attorneys general, a development that shows the
degree to which the matter has become political football.
The initial probe began last year when Mr. Schneiderman
subpoenaed Exxon and took on renewed urgency in March when he, Ms.
Healey and Mr. Walker joined former Vice President Al Gore and
several state representatives to discuss their work to examine the
company's record.
In its Wednesday filing, Exxon said the investigations are "the
culmination of years of planning," referring to a 2012 meeting in
which environmental activists discussed a strategy that included
using the subpoena power of attorneys general to obtain records of
fossil fuel companies.
Participants in the meeting, which took place in La Jolla,
Calif., also discussed how such documents could pave the way for
litigation akin to that leveled successfully against tobacco
companies for their role in researching and misconstruing the risks
of smoking.
Write to Bradley Olson at Bradley.Olson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 15, 2016 16:05 ET (20:05 GMT)
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