New York sues Exxon Mobil, claiming it hid climate change risks
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed a long-awaited lawsuit aga🌃inst Exxon Mobil on Wednesday, claiming that 𓄧the oil giant hid the financial risks of climate change from its investors — and that former CEO Rex Tillerson had signed off on the deception.
The civil suit, filed in state Supreme Court, claims the Texas-based company was “dec🍰eiving” investors by essentially using two sets of books to account for the rising costs of environmental regulations around the world.
The 97-page suit also makes an explosive claim against Tillerson, who left the company to become secretary of state under President💎 Trump in 2016, only to get fired this spring.
“Exxon’s fraud was sanctioned at the highest levels of the company,” Underwood claims in the suit, alleging that Tillerson “knew for years that the company’s representations concerning proxy costs ⛄were misleading.”
Exxon likewise had played 𒅌down th🍎e risk that climate change would have on its existing oil holdings, even though internal projections said that its assets could be “stranded,” or valueless, according to the suit.
Exxon shares shed 2.8 percent to close at $77.61.
“These baseless allegations are a product of closed-door lobbying by special interests, political opportunism and the attorney general’s inability to admit that a three-year investigation has uncovered no wrongdoing,” Scott Silvestri, an Exxon spoke🐽sman, said in a statement.
“The company looks forward to 𒁃refuting these claims🤡 as soon as possible and getting this meritless civil lawsuit dismissed.”
The suit comes almost three years to the day afꦫ🧜ter the AG’s office, then led by the now-disgraced Eric Schneiderman, launched an investigation into the company.
What followed was three years of back-and-forth between the energy company and New York’s top cops. In 2016, ꩵExxon tried to block the suit in federal court, claiming that the investigation was a “political witch hunt.” That suit was thrown out in March.
Underwood claims that Exxon’s misrepresentations damaged shareholder𓄧s, including the teachers and public workers with New York state pensions, because they were misled about the risks of climate change.