A coalition of attorneys general announced in a press conference today (featuring former Vice President Al Gore) that they will be working together to support climate action. They will be filing an amicus curie brief in support of the Clean Power Plan, and some are investigating what #ExxonKnew in order to see if the fossil fuel company has violated consumer protection, pension or securities laws. New York and California have already began to investigate, but both Massachusetts and the Virgin Islands are starting inquiries and there are rumors that other AGs will move soon.
The AGs' language was some of the strongest yet on the issue. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman referenced a similar successful case against Peabody Energy, in which the company was found to have mislead investors by omitting the impact of climate policies on coal prices in its financial disclosures. In an implicit response to the recent WSJ oped advertising the launch of the “Free Speech in Science” project, Schneiderman said that, “ the First Amendment does not give you the right to commit fraud.”
The attorney general of the Virgin Islands announced that he is launching an investigation as well, and emphasized that the climate change challenge is about their “survival.” According to the attorney general, the Virgin Islands are taking on a “David versus Goliath fight” with ExxonMobil, a major multinational corporation.
With this new development, we can expect another slew of opinion pieces in the Wall Street Journal, which loves to stick up for Goliath while pretending to be David.
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