From the Albany Times Union
ExxonMobil asks Fort Worth federal court to block New York inquiry
Facing pressure from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to reveal whether multi-trillion dollar oil reserves could be at risk under climate change regulations, energy giant ExxonMobil wants a Texas federal court to block his probe.
In legal papers filed Monday in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, Exxon is claiming Schneiderman is part of a conspiracy to silence climate change dissenters and cites emails obtained by a conservative legal think tank linked to fossil fuel interests and Kansas petrochemical billionaires Charles and David Koch.
Schneiderman and Exxon are at odds over an August subpoena served on PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm for Exxon, seeking details on how Exxon values reserves of oil and natural gas currently in the ground. This came after Schneiderman and 19 other state attorneys general in March announced an investigation into Exxon for its internal science on connections between greenhouse gas emissions and man-made climate change.
This spring, Exxon added about $800 billion in value to its known reserves, bringing the total to nearly $3 trillion, which could last for 16 years at current production rates, according to company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Schneiderman is investigating whether Exxon is misleading investors on risks that reserves could be devalued through potential regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing fossil fuel use.
On Friday, Scheiderman filed in state Supreme Court to force Exxon’s accountant to release records, which were due in early September, and that the company now claims are nearly all legally confidential as privileged communications.
He noted that other energy companies have reduced known reserves values to reflect potential greenhouse gas emissions reductions, which the U.S., Europe, China and other major industrialized countries agree are needed to prevent potential runaway climate change.
Said Schneiderman spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick, “As we’ve seen for months, Exxon will do everything in its power to distract, delay, and avoid any investigation into its actions, which may have violated state securities and consumer fraud laws. Exxon’s latest claims in its stunt litigation in Texas are meritless.”
In July, the Texas chairman of the congressional Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Rep. Lamar Smith, subpoenaed Schneiderman’s office for his records of his investigation into Exxon, which the attorney general refused to provide. The fossil fuel industry is the dominant source of Smith’s campaign contributions, according to theopensecrets.com web site.
On Monday, an Exxon press statement accused Scheiderman of “improper political bias” to support an “agenda for financial gain” that was not specified. Exxon also claimed the multi-state investigation was a “conspiracy” meant to “suppress speech” and “delegitimize” the company.
Other states in the investigation include Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, California, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and the District of Columbia, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands. The group is also defending proposed federal rules over power plant greenhouse gas emissions from a court challenge by states aligned with fossil fuel interests.
Exxon claimed bias because of a meeting Schneiderman and other state attorneys general had this spring with environmental groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, a scientific advocacy group that supports the international scientific consensus linking fossil fuel emissions and climate change.
Emails outlining the meeting were obtained through a Freedom of Information law request made in Vermont by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, a not-for-profit conservative think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. The group has financial and staffing links to the fossil fuel industry and the Koch brothers, who have been involved in national and state efforts to roll back climate and energy regulations.
In New York, another Koch-supported group, Americans for Prosperity, lost a legal challenge to undo the state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which limits power plant emissions, in 2012. Schneiderman defended the state in that case.
