Pennsylvania voters have some big decisions to make at the polls tomorrow and one of them is for Attorney General. Here’s something you should know:
The day before Pennsylvania voters cast their votes in the primary election, the leading Democratic candidate for attorney general has confirmed to ThinkProgress that, if elected, he would join a growing coalition of state attorneys general in examining whether fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil have purposefully misled the public on climate change.
“Climate change is one of our world’s most pressing issues and and I’ve made addressing it a top priority in my campaign and have pledged to hold the fracking industry accountable for violating Pennsylvania’s environmental laws,” Josh Shapiro, who according to the most recent polling from Harper Poll leads the current Democratic attorney general race by almost 20 points, told ThinkProgress via an emailed statement. “I applaud [New York Attorney General Eric] Schneiderman and the 16 other state Attorneys General who are investigating Exxon Mobil for misleading investors about climate change. As Attorney General, I will join them in looking closely at whether fossil fuel companies like Exxon Mobil have violated Pennsylvania’s laws.”
ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas company, is currently under investigation for knowingly misleading the public on climate change. Earlier last year, both Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times published investigations chronicling how Exxon knew as far back as 1977 that their product was contributing to climate change. New York Attorney General Schneiderman was the first to officially announce his intention to investigate Exxon’s history of climate misinformation in November of 2015. Since then, attorneys general from California, Connecticut, D.C., Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have joined Schneidermanin his inquiry.
Cracking down on the frackers has always been part of Shapiro’s campaign so please remember that before casting your votes. If you need to find your polling place, Shapiro has you covered via this e-mail I received from his campaign today:
I'm typing this email on the eve of the election from the passenger seat of the Chevy that we've been using to drive around Pennsylvania since we launched our campaign for Attorney General on January 12. Since then, we've put 21,152 miles on our truck, attended over 300 events and met thousands of people.
I've learned a lot from this process and I have a greater appreciation for the people from all corners of our Commonwealth. I also have a deeper understanding of the role that our Attorney General should play in the lives of ordinary Pennsylvanians -- from ensuring your constitutional rights to a "thorough and efficient" education and "clean air and pure water", to protecting a woman's right to choose, to dealing with the heroin crisis to getting illegal guns off of our streets.
Our democracy is built on a foundation of justice, fairness and equality. I am running to repair that foundation, to take on the status quo and hold people and companies accountable who undermine our communities.
A great equalizer in our democracy is that everyone gets a vote -- no matter where you're from, what you look like, how much you earn, or who you love, everyone gets an equal say.
On Election Day, each of us gets to choose the path for our future.
I hope that you will join me in charting this new course for our Commonwealth and for our justice system. If you stand with me tomorrow and make me your Democratic nominee, I will stand up for you each and every day as your Attorney General.
I respectfully ask for your vote.
Thank you,
Josh Shapiro
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