Colorado’s Democratic candidate for Attorney General says he would not add the state to a lawsuit targeting Exxon Mobil over climate change, calling the litigation’s reasoning “uncomfortable.”
Phil Weiser, speaking at a Colorado Chamber of Commerce debate Thursday, said the case for the climate change litigation has not been made.
“This is what happens when you do your homework. You ask a basic question like, let me get this straight, our carbon footprint has been reduced by substituting natural gas for coal. How do you sue Exxon for causing climate change?” Weiser responded. “That is a very hard question. I’ve asked it, I haven’t gotten an answer.”
“And so I’m uncomfortable with that litigation because the case for it hasn’t been made,” he added.
Weiser pushed back against suggestions the attorney general’s office under his leadership would be activist in nature.
“I’m not about being an activist one way or the other, I’m about following the facts,” Weiser said. “Protecting people and enforcing our laws the way they’re meant to be enforced.”
Weiser said a Colorado attorney general should be “committed to the rule of law.”