The group, representing 17 states, said it will pursue climate change litigation. Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands officially joined an ongoing investigation into potential fraud by ExxonMobil, and all the states committed to working together as “creatively, collaboratively, and aggressively” as possible to combat climate change.
“We have heard the scientists; we know what is being done to the planet,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said at a press conference Tuesday in Manhattan. The group also came together to defend the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, formally filing its petition in support of the rule Tuesday in the D.C. District Court of Appeals.
“There is no dispute, but there is confusion,” Schneiderman said. The confusion has been pushed by fossil fuel companies and their interests that use money and power to sway Congress and the American public, he said. Groups with ties to fossil fuel companies have run ad campaigns and spent millions fighting renewable energy development.
ExxonMobil, specifically, is under investigation for knowingly misleading the public and investors on the dangers of climate change, which it allegedly knew about as far back as the 1970s. New York and California had previously announced investigations.
Schneiderman is joined in the coalition by attorneys general from from California, Connecticut, D.C., Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepson pointed out that one of the big reasons the United States has not seen more movement on climate change has been misinformation.
Read more at State AGs Vow to Tackle Climate Change and Fossil Fuel Industry Fraud
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