What does it take for a $ 260 - billion transnational corporation like Exxon to enchant a break these day ?
Of late , Exxon has beenbuffeted by climate lawsuitsfiled by cities and states , among them the attorneys general of California , Massachusetts , New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands . Evenformer employeesare suing the oil colossus .
The causa against the company fence it should be held apt for damage from climate change because its products are behind our rapidly shift atmosphere . They also argue that Exxon fuck the vegetable oil it was selling is one of the etymon cause of mood change , yet it engaged in crush its own research and sow doubt in what looks like an actual conspiracy . All of this has been meticulously documented by the metier and researchers under the#ExxonKnew banner .
In an effort to writhe out of the growing legal morass , Exxon recentlysubmitted a petitionalleging a massive conspiracy against the ship’s company . charge in January in Texas , the petition argues that a feisty dance band of “ special interest and opportunist politician are ill-treat law enforcement authority and sound cognitive operation to impose their viewpoint on climate change … ExxonMobil find itself right away in that confederacy ’s crosshairs . ”
The orison alleges that the conspirators are adjudicate to curtail Exxon ’s First Amendment rights and power to participate in “ the marketplace of ideas , ” and abuse legal philosophy enforcement powers .
Exxon has even come up with a name for the confederacy : “ The La Jolla playbook , ” named after a June 2012 workshop that saw about two dozen scientists , historiographer , and lawyer run into to talk over lessons from the fight against major tobacco companies . Earther has obtained a copy of this shifty playbook through this * squints*publicly available reportthat Exxon cites in its first footnote .
The conspiracy part comes in because some of those at the workshop have since cater advice or helped with the current craw of cause against Exxon and other oil giants . so as to get to the bottom of this mystery , Exxon ’s young suit says the companionship would wish to depose 16 hoi polloi who were at the La Jolla shop or are require in current cause against Exxon . Bloomberg reportsthat the company has targeted at least 30 people or organizations in total who are regard with lawsuit against it .
All this is to say that Exxon , which has used some ofalmost the accurate maneuver as tobacco companiesto obfuscate the link between smoking and Crab , is disconcert it now face lawsuits that trust on strategies used to follow the tobacco plant industry .
If this sounds like a style to intimidate mass function on the various instance and anyone else who may want to get involved , well , that seem to kinda be what this is all about .
“ These types of action are shout out ‘ Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation ( SLAPP ) ’ suits , ” Kassie Siegel , the music director of the Center for Biological Diversity ’s Climate Law Institute , told Earther . “ In many states , like California , there are exceptional anti - SLAPP statutes because they are such a serious threat to public involvement . copious corporations often threaten people with expensive and nerve-wracking legal proceedings to seek to shut them up . ”
Legal experts have said theysee nothing wrong“with complainant ’ attorney and attorneys universal strategizing together ” and thatthe petition“would be laughable ” if Exxon were n’t a huge party .
Seth Berenzweig , founding and managing cooperator of natural law house Berenzweig Leonard , tell Fox Businessthat “ this move by ExxonMobil is very strange … ExxonMobil has a immense hurdle to climb in monastic order to succeed its legal claims . ”
The orison dropped the calendar month before Exxon CEO Darren Woods espoused that Exxon is take climate change very gravely and remains committed to the Paris Agreement as well as putting a price on C .
“ We empathize the risk of exposure and that it postulate to be addressed , ” hetold Forbes . “ We ’re sincere in that . We conceive that . ”
And while the company has certainly made footstep in public to be more mood - friendly , it is still , well , an rock oil company . It also does n’t erase decades of sowing doubt that are at the substance of the lawsuits its facing . While Exxon may be seek to play up its victimhood with the request and a smart , new face in public , it ’s an incredibly tall pitcher’s mound its going to have to climb .
Climate change
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