Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said at a presidential campaign event Friday that he wouldn’t instruct the Department of Justice to investigate ExxonMobil over reports the company hid its knowledge of greenhouse gases’ impact on climate change.
In a video released by environmental group 350 Action Friday afternoon, the GOP presidential candidate said he would resist calls from green groups to investigate ExxonMobil.
“That’s nothing but a left wing effort to demonize industries in America,” Rubio said, “and we’re not going to prosecute people who don’t believe in climate change when I’m president.”
According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsible Politics, Rubio has accepted more than $360,000 from the oil and gas industry in political donations during his career.
ExxonMobil has been the subject of scrutiny after a report published in the Los Angeles Times and Inside Climate News that said ExxonMobil, then just Exxon, knew decades ago that burning fossil fuels contributed to climate change and the company covered up the information.
Many scientists blame the greenhouse gases emitted from burning fossil fuels for driving manmade climate change.
According to the investigations in the Times and Inside Climate News, ExxonMobil learned in 1977 from a senior scientist that burning fossil fuels would warm the planet. A year later, the company began researching how carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels would affect the planet.
In 1982, the company prepared an internal document on carbon dioxide and climate change that said “major reduction” in fossil fuel use would be needed to avoid catastrophic events. While that was circulating, ExxonMobil didn’t tell regulators about the findings.
Six years after the internal document was produced, ExxonMobil went on the offensive, according to the report. The company began paying for efforts that would cast doubt on climate change, including founding the Global Climate Coalition.
The New York Attorney General’s Office is investigating the company, and multiple letters have been sent from Democrats in Congress to the company to find out what executives knew about climate change and when.
All three Democratic candidates for president have called for an investigation by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Secretary of State John Kerry has voiced support for such a lawsuit.
In a statement, 350 Action said Rubio was mistaken in his view the ExxonMobil would be investigated for not believing in climate change.
“Contrary to Rubio’s perception, Exxon is not being investigated for their political views, but rather for actively misleading the public and their investors on their extensive knowledge of climate change,” the statement reads.
