ExxonMobil has done research about climate change since the 1970s and 1980s, but the company has extended financial support to a variety of organizations that have cast doubt on the links between man-made emissions of greenhouse gases and climate change. ExxonMobil and its defenders have asserted that the company has merely been exercising its free speech rights with respect to climate change. The state attorneys general are looking into whether the oil giant knew with certainty about the links between fossil fuels and climate change. Several years ago, ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson acknowledged that climate change was real and that a carbon tax would be the best way to address greenhouse gas emissions. But five GOP members of the committee said that the attorneys general were abusing their subpoena power to intimidate ExxonMobil.

Source: Washington Post July 13, 2016 20:33 UTC