A group of state attorneys general announced last year that they were undertaking a probe into whether Exxon Mobil and other corporations misled investors and the public on the risks of climate change. But President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, appears to believe that the probe is stifling “debate” on the issue. Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma, joined a dozen other Republican attorneys general in signing an open letter on June 15 that argued Exxon’s record on climate change is “not a question for the courts.” The letter, which The Huffington Post reported on earlier this year, was seemingly aimed at the AGs United for Clean Power group, which includes Democratic attorneys general from New York, Massachusetts and California. Pruitt and the Republican AGs argue that their Democratic counterparts’ probe “targets a particular type of market participant” in focusing only on Exxon Mobil and not similarly targeting clean energy companies or environmental advocacy nonprofits that could be “exaggerating” climate change risks to benefit their bottom line. Nevertheless, the investigation reports, the company pushed back against initiatives to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of a campaign that environmentalists have compared to Big Tobacco's previous efforts to downplay the dangers of smoking.

Source: Huffington Post January 11, 2017 19:50 UTC