Healey sues ExxonMobil, alleges climate change deception

ATTORNEY GENERAL MAURA HEALEY sued ExxonMobil Corp. on Thursday, accusing the company of misleading Massachusetts investors and consumers by withholding information linking its fossil fuel products to climate change.

The 205-page lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, says Exxon scientists predicted 37 years ago, with “astonishing accuracy,” that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels would reach 415 parts per million by 2019. That level, “the highest level in human history,” was reached on May 11, according to the lawsuit.

“From the late 1970s onward, Exxon scientists and management knew that Exxon’s oil (including petroleum), natural gas, and related hydrocarbon products were the leading cause of climate change and that climate change, if unabated, would have potentially ‘catastrophic’ – as one Exxon scientist put it 37 years ago – impacts on the global environment and human communities,” the lawsuit says.

Healey claims ExxonMobil violated investor laws by failing to disclose information that could have influenced decisions about whether to buy Exxon Mobil stock and consumer protection laws by not revealing information that would have influenced decisions to buy ExxonMobil products. The lawsuit alleges that Exxon downplayed the impacts of climate change and sold fuels and engine oil products it advertised as “green” when it knew they were contributing to climate change,

Read more: https://commonwealthmagazine.org/environment/healey-sues-exxonmobil-alleges-climate-change-deception/