Exxon's Climate Accounting a 'Sham' Under Rex Tillerson, New York’s AG Says

Eric Schneiderman says he has evidence that Exxon used one set of numbers in describing risks to investors but used a secret set internally.

New York's attorney general has accused ExxonMobil of misleading investors by using two sets of numbers in its greenhouse gas accounting—one shown to investors, and a "secret" set used internally by the company.

In a document filed in a New York court on Friday, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says that Rex Tillerson, who was then the chief executive of Exxon and is now the U.S. secretary of state, approved of what "may be a sham."

Schneiderman spelled out the evidence for the first time from documents and testimony already turned over by Exxon, and demanded more information under additional subpoenas in a probe that has been going on since 2015.

The details of the allegation provide the most substantive evidence yet that the energy company may have misrepresented the financial risks posed to its business by climate change.

The filing says that Tillerson was "specifically informed of, and approved of" the discrepancy.

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