Exxon Mobil is being investigated by the NY attorney general over misleading the public about Climate Change all these years…or something. Unbelievable.
This is Democrats using the power of government to intimidate or punish their enemies over this phony propaganda that began as global warming:
NEW YORK TIMES – The New York attorney general has begun a sweeping investigation of Exxon Mobil to determine whether the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change or to investors about how those risks might hurt the oil business.
According to people with knowledge of the investigation, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman issued a subpoena Wednesday evening to Exxon Mobil, demanding extensive financial records, emails and other documents.
The focus includes the company’s activities dating to the late 1970s, including a period of at least a decade when Exxon Mobil funded groups that sought to undermine climate science. A major focus of the investigation is whether the company adequately warned investors about potential financial risks stemming from society’s need to limit fossil-fuel use.
Kenneth P. Cohen, vice president for public affairs at Exxon Mobil, said on Thursday that the company had received the subpoena and was still deciding how to respond.
“We unequivocally reject the allegations that Exxon Mobil has suppressed climate-change research,” Mr. Cohen said, adding that the company had funded mainstream climate science since the 1970s, had published dozens of scientific papers on the topic, and had disclosed climate risks to investors.
The people with knowledge of the New York case also said on Thursday that, in a separate inquiry, Peabody Energy, the nation’s largest coal producer, had been under investigation by the attorney general for two years over whether it properly disclosed financial risks related to climate change. That investigation has not been previously reported, and has not resulted in any charges or other legal action against Peabody.
Vic Svec, a Peabody senior vice president, said in a statement, “Peabody continues to work with the New York attorney general’s office regarding our disclosures, which have evolved over the years.”
The Exxon Mobil investigation might expand further, to encompass other oil companies, according to the people with knowledge of the case, though no additional subpoenas have been issued to date.
The people spoke on the condition they not be identified, saying they were not authorized to speak publicly. The Martin Act, a New York state law, confers on the attorney general broad powers to investigate financial fraud.
Hillary Clinton has called for this investigation herself, and I’m sure she’s done it more behind closed doors than she has in public like below:
MINT PRESS NEWS – Hillary Clinton has called for a federal investigation into Exxon Mobil Corp.’s funding of climate change denial just months after the Houston-based oil giant decided to end its sponsorship of the Clinton Global Initiative.
At a New Hampshire town hall meeting last Thursday, Clinton told Jordan Cichon, a local activist and community organizer for the environmental activism group 350 Action, that Exxon Mobil deserved to be investigated for apparently covering up decades-old evidence of the impact of fossil fuels on global warming.
“There’s a lot of evidence that they misled,” she told Cichon in the brief interaction caught on video by 350 Action:
Prior to the statement, Clinton had been reluctant to comment on the behavior of this former financial benefactor.
And just two days ago Al Gore called for this phony investigation himself:
NEW YORK TIMES – Former Vice President Al Gore said on Tuesday that there should be an investigation into Exxon Mobil over what he said was the oil company’s misleading the public about the risks of climate change.
Echoing the views of the Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the onetime presidential candidate and current environmental activist and investor said at the DealBook conference in New York that Exxon’s actions were similar to those of the tobacco industry in the 1980s, when it denied that smoking could cause health problems.
His comments followed recent reporting by InsideClimate News, which said that Exxon Mobil knew almost four decades ago that it was adding to global warming. The company gave millions of dollars to groups that publicly denied global warming was real.
In an emailed statement in response to Mr. Gore’s comments, an Exxon Mobil representative said: “We unequivocally reject the allegations that we misled anyone on climate research. The media reports upon which these allegations are based are inaccurate distortions of ExxonMobil’s nearly 40 years of climate research.”
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders have also called for an investigation into Exxon Mobil.
So now energy companies can be investigated based on phony Climate Change science claims that the phony environmentalists won’t even debate? What a fascist joke our nation is quickly becoming in the hands of Democrats.