ExxonMobil May Be Investigated for Willfully Funding Climate Change Denial
ExxonMobil, a company that vehemently asserts that it does not hate your children, has been caught in a big fat enormous lie, and politicians want the corporation to pay.
Over the weekend, Congress members asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate ExxonMobil to see whether the company violated federal laws that mandate that it disclose risks — in this case, risks that pertain to climate change.
Four members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by California Democrat Ted Lieu, penned a letter to the SEC alleging that Exxon “may have omitted or misrepresented material information in its official filings”:
Sen. Bernie Sanders and presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley also demanded a federal investigation of the company this week. Essentially, politicians want to know whether Exxon helped fund climate change denialism after its own scientists confirmed that climate change is real.
Over the past months, an investigation by the website InsideClimate News revealed that Exxon, the world’s fourth-largest oil company, has reportedly been funding climate-denying organizations for decades, despite the findings of its own climate scientists. In one instance in 2001, Exxon told shareholders:
“ExxonMobil recognizes that the risk of climate change and its potential impacts on society and ecosystems may prove to be significant.”
Despite the findings of its own researchers, the company has allegedly been funding climate-denying lobbyists and working to thwart global warming solutions that would hurt their bottom line.
Exxon responded by calling InsideClimate News, a Pulitzer Prize-winning website, an “anti-oil and gas activist organization.”
