Two members of Congress are asking Attorney Genera Loretta Lynch to investigate ExxonMobil after reports that the company knew about the role fossil fuels play in climate change and hid it from the public.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Mass., said in the letter that ExxonMobil’s decision to “hide the truth” about fossil fuels is reminiscent of cigarette companies denying the health problems stemming from tobacco smoke.
Most scientists blame the burning of fossil fuels for the warming of the Earth due to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The Los Angeles Times and Inside Climate News reported in a story last week that the company knew in July 1977 that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels would warm the planet. After 10 years of exploring the problem, ExxonMobil — then just Exxon — decided to “engage in a campaign of denial and disinformation,” the congressmen wrote.
“ExxonMobil’s apparent behavior is similar to cigarette companies that repeatedly denied harm from tobacco and spread uncertainty and misleading information to the public,” Lieu and DeSaulnier wrote.
The lawmakers pointed out that the Justice Department investigated tobacco companies under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and they requested Lynch do something similar for ExxonMobil.
“We request the DOJ investigate whether ExxonMobil violated RICO, consumer protection, truth in advertising, public health, shareholder protection and other laws,” they wrote.
According to the report, 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 stated “major reduction” in fossil fuel use would be needed to avoid catastrophic events. While that was circulating, ExxonMobil didn’t tell regulators about their 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.
At the same time, the company was building climate change projections into the company’s future plans. Among those plans was future drilling in the Arctic because the polar ice caps would melt.
“If these allegations against Exxon are true, then Exxon’s actions were immoral,” the representatives wrote. “We request the DOJ to investigate whether ExxonMobil’s actions were also illegal.”
ExxonMobil spokesman Alan Jeffers said the company denied the allegations in the letter.
“The media reports that are the basis for their allegations are inaccurate distortions of ExxonMobil’s more than 30-year history of climate research that was conducted in conjunction with the Department of Energy, academics and the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change,” he said. “Suggestions that ExxonMobil suppressed its climate research are completely without merit.”
