Calif. And Greens Sued Exxon Over Plastics. Now Exxon Is Striking Back.

"In a retaliatory lawsuit, Exxon says claims against it are motivated by “sordid for-profit incentives and outright greed.”"

"On Monday, Exxon Mobil filed a lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of environmental groups over their criticism of the company’s plastics recycling initiatives.

In the complaint filed in federal court in Beaumont, Texas, the oil giant accuses Bonta and the advocacy groups of mounting a “smear campaign” motivated by “foreign influence, personal ambition, and a murky source of financing rife with conflicting business interests.”

“This is a suit … about the corrupting influence of foreign money in the American legal system,” Exxon writes in the suit’s introduction, “and the sordid for-profit incentives and outright greed that tries to hide behind so-called public impact litigation.”

Exxon’s new lawsuit is a response to two legal complaints brought last September by Bonta and four environmental groups — Baykeeper, Heal the Bay, the Sierra Club, and Surfrider Foundation — in which the plaintiffs alleged that Exxon Mobil had engaged in a “decades-long campaign of deception that caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis.”"

Joseph Winters reports for Grist January 7, 2025.

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"Exxon Sues California Official, Claiming He Defamed the Company" (New York Times)