ExxonMobil has just received more bad news concerning its ongoing climate change fraud cause with attorney generals from New York, Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A couple of days ago, the oil giant’s attempts to get the trial moved to their considerably more friendly home territory of Texas was denied, and before that ExxonMobil’s ace-in-the-hole former CEO Rex Tillerson’s “shadow” emails were ordered released by a New York Judge. Today, even more good news.
A lawsuit by ExxonMobil seeking to block climate change fraud investigations by the attorneys general of Massachusetts and New York has been dismissed—at least for now. The ruling came from the New York federal judge who took over the case last week after a judge in Texas transferred it to her jurisdiction.
Although the order by U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni puts an end to the lawsuit filed by Exxon in Texas last year, the case may be refiled in as little as a month.
The ongoing case concerns what ExxonMobil knew about climate change and fossil fuel’s part in global warming—and for how long. New York and Massachusetts Attorney Generals Eric Schneiderman and Maura Healey have been investigating ExxonMobil for fraud in their history of climate change denials to the public. In turn, ExxonMobil has been suing these attorney generals saying that their attacks are politically motivated. Unsurprisingly, ExxonMobil has used the full weight of Republican fossil-fuel shills, like Texas Rep. Lamar Smith and our Republican White House, to drum up support.