ExxonMobil is going after the country’s attorneys general in the hopes of blocking further investigation into what they did and did not know concerning the science of climate change. They’ve already sued Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker to this end. InsideClimateNews is reporting that they are moving ahead with another lawsuit trying to stem the exposure of information.
The company filed a complaint in federal district court in Fort Worth on Wednesday against Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Her office subpoenaed Exxon records going back 40 years in an investigation of whether the company committed consumer or securities fraud by misrepresenting its knowledge of climate change.
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In its lawsuit, Exxon said the Massachusetts investigation under consumer and securities fraud statutes is "nothing more than a weak pretext for an unlawful exercise of government power to further political objectives." The attorney general is "abusing the power of government to silence a speaker she disfavors," according to the lawsuit.
ExxonMobil is trying to trying to halt the investigation before they are forced to basically admit that they knew, had evidence, and talked amongst themselves about climate change concerns—possibly all the way back in the 1970s.