The new president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute said a subpoena sent to it recently by the attorney general for the U.S. Virgin Islands was a “blatant attack on its First Amendment rights” and it would fight the order in court.
The subpoena is part of a wide-ranging effort by state attorneys general to prosecute oil giant Exxon Mobil under racketeering laws for supporting the research of climate change skeptics. Exxon Mobil had previously been a donor to CEI, which has published articles questioning various claims made regarding climate change.
The subpoena, dated April 4, requested basically every research document, message or other communication at the Washington-based libertarian think tank involving Exxon Mobil between 1997 and 2007, the year that the oil giant, under pressure from Congress, cut off funding to the institute. CEI President Kent Lassman said it was simple harassment by the attorneys general for holding a different opinion on the issue.
“It is not and cannot become a crime to disagree with a government official. Somewhere along the line, dissent from orthodoxy has transformed from a uniquely American virtue to a crime,” Lassman said in a statement published Tuesday on CEI’s website under the headline “CEI will surmount crimethink persecution.”
A spokesman for Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker could not be reached for comment.
The situation is somewhat ironic in that the think thank aggressively uses the Freedom of Information Act to demand information from government officials. Some liberal critics have called the subpoena just desserts. Lassman aggressively disputed that in his statement.
“Let’s be perfectly clear. The subpoena is based on an implied allegation of criminal wrongdoing. An FOIA request is not. CEI makes FOIA requests as a check on government overreach and misconduct,” he said.
The subpoena is related to a probe started in late March by Walker and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy into whether Exxon Mobil misled its investors and the general public regarding the risks of climate change. It is expected to eventually involve the federal racketeering and organized crime laws known as “RICO.” It is part of a broader effort by 17 attorneys general to level related charges at other oil companies.
The probes are based on a Los Angeles Times and Inside Climate News report that Exxon Mobil learned from one of its senior scientists in July 1977 that carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels would warm the planet. Many scientists blame the burning of fossil fuels for releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing manmade climate change and the subsequent warming of the globe.
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, Exxon Mobil didn’t tell regulators about their findings, according to the Inside Climate News report.
Six years after the internal document was produced, Exxon Mobil 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.
Walker said at press event to announce the territory’s probe that it was “not an environmental issue as much as it is about survival. We try as attorneys general to build a safe community for all. But what good is that if, annually, everything is destroyed? It could be David versus Goliath — the Virgin Islands against a huge corporation. But we will not stop until we get to the bottom of this and make it clear to our residents as well as the American people that we have to do something transformational.”
On its website CEI states that it “questions global warming alarmism, makes the case for access to affordable energy, and opposes energy-rationing policies, including the Kyoto Protocol, cap-and-trade legislation, and EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. CEI also opposes all government mandates and subsidies for conventional and alternative energy technologies.”
The think tank has long been a target of liberal groups who argue that energy companies are behind climate change skepticism. CEI officials argue that they are targeted because they are raising legitimate questions on the issue. They note the institute has maintained the same positions on climate change in the decade since ExxonMobil cut off its support.
In an April 1 post, Myron Ebell, CEI’s director of energy and the environment, accused the state attorneys general of conspiring to “shake down Big Oil.”
