Exxon's climate change denial warrants federal inquiry, congressmen say

Members of Congress have asked for a federal investigation into whether ExxonMobil broke the law by intentionally obscuring the truth about climate change.

The two members of Congress wrote to Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, on Wednesday, saying they were concerned by the results of two separate investigations by Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times, which found that ExxonMobil scientists confirmed fossil fuels were causing climate change decades ago, but publicly embarked on a campaign of denial.

“ExxonMobil’s apparent behavior is similar to cigarette companies that repeatedly denied harm from tobacco and spread uncertainty and misinformation to the public,” Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier, both Democratic members of Congress from California, wrote. “We ask that the DoJ similarly investigate Exxon for organizing a sustained deception campaign disputing climate science and failing to disclose truthful information to investors and the public.”

They asked the Department of Justice to look into a number of statutes concerning Exxon’s actions, including truth in advertising and racketeering laws.

Over the last six months, Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic senator from Rhode Island who has pushed for action on climate change, as well as a number of campaign groups, has raised the prospect of using anti-racketeering laws to prosecute companies and other groups for spreading disinformation about climate change.

In an opinion piece for the Washington Post last May, Whitehouse wrote there was already a precedent for such legal action with the successful prosecution of tobacco companies under anti-racketeering laws.

Richard Keil, a spokesman for Exxon, rejected the allegations contained in the letter. “This is complete bullshit,” he told the Guardian. “We have a 30 year continuous uninterrupted history of researching climate change and the LA Times for whatever reason chose to ignore that fact.”

Greenpeace spent years investigating the extent of Exxon’s funding for climate denial, estimating the oil company spent more than $30m funding thinktanks and front groups disputing global warming before publicly disavowing such activities.

The Guardian reported last July that the oil company’s scientists knew that fossil fuels caused climate change as early as 1981 – 27 years before climate change became a public issue.