Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire and perhaps soon-to-be presidential candidate, suggested earlier this year that reluctant corporations needed to be pressed into addressing climate change.
“Employees want to work for an environmentally friendly company. And then there are the investors. … They want socially responsible investing,” the former New York City mayor and media mogul declared to National Geographic in February.
So it seems likely that Bloomberg privately cheered the news Wednesday that New York’s attorney general had filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil alleging the oil giant deceived investors over its financial risks from climate change regulations.
The suit hit ExxonMobil right in its pocketbook, which is quite the pressure point.
Actually, though, Bloomberg did a whole lot more: He literally bought his way into the case.
That’s right. He used his money to fund a prosecutor on the New York attorney general’s staff, who then worked on the lawsuit.
Take a look at page 90 of Attorney General Barbara Underwood’s lawsuit against ExxonMobiland you will see one of the listed prosecutors is Special Assistant Attorney General Matthew Eisenson. He carries the title “special” because he was not hired through the normal channels.