Will ExxonMobil Have to Pay for Misleading the Public on Climate Change?

A handful of climate-change skeptics have convinced legislators in the United States and other nations to dismiss ample findings by climate researchers that the planet is warming. The Union of Concerned Scientists in 2007 compared fossil-fuel industry tactics “to manufacture uncertainty” on scientific findings with those of the cigarette industry. Investigative journalists in 2015 suggested that ExxonMobile had long “understood more about climate change than it had let on and had deliberately misled the public about it,” report Paul Barrett and Matthew Philips for Bloomberg. Outrage ensured with the hashtag #ExxonKnew. Exxon responded by describing the investigations as part of a conspiracy and suggesting executives’ rights to free speech are under attack. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched an investigation into whether Exxon misled investors and regulators, and notes that the First Amendment doesn’t give one the right to commit fraud. Climate skeptics responded with investigations of the investigators. The investigations hit the industry when oil prices and profits hit a low point. Exxon denies deception took place and is cooperating with investigators. – YaleGlobal