Attorney General Barbara Underwood (D-N.Y.) claims that Exxon courted investors – such as the state’s public pension funds – with inaccurate information. It should be noted that New York’s lawsuit comes just months after the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped an investigation of its own.
United States District Judge William Alsup – a Bill Clinton appointee – also dismissed lawsuits this year brought by San Francisco and Oakland against big oil companies including, Exxon Mobil.
Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) delved further into the issue:
“I have to sympathize with the statement made by the Exxon Mobil spokesman, which was to point out something we’ve been principally responsible for revealing to the public and that is, their quote was, ‘These baseless allegations are the product of closed-door lobbying by specialist interests, political opportunism and the attorney general’s inability to admit that its three-year investigation has covered no wrongdoing,’” Horner pointed out.
He went on to say that climate change activists are trying to make energy the next tobacco.