"Exxon: Charges Of Lying About Climate Change Are 'Preposterous'"

"Several states are investigating the company, or considering doing so, for fraud related to knowingly misleading the public and investors about climate change."

"ExxonMobil Corp. is fighting a subpoena request by the US Virgin Islands, which is claiming that the oil company could have violated the territory's anti-racketeering law by knowingly misleading the government and the public about the likelihood that its fossil fuel business impacted climate change and thus defrauding them.

But Exxon vehemently opposes the notion that it knew about climate change before the rest of the world did. In a March 29 statement, Suzanne McCarron, Exxon’s vice president of public and government affairs, says: 'The allegations are based on the false premise that ExxonMobil reached definitive conclusions about anthropogenic climate change before the world’s experts and before the science itself had matured, and then withheld it from the broader scientific community. Such a claim is preposterous. It assumes that the expertise of a handful of Exxon scientists somehow exceeded the accumulated knowledge of the global scientific community at the time, and that the Exxon scientists somehow were able to reach definitive conclusions before the science had developed. It ignores the fact that Exxon’s scientists were fully engaged in the public discussion, openly sharing their findings in peer-reviewed publications and public archives, and actively contributing to the work of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.'"

Lonnie Shekhtman reports for the Christian Science Monitor April 14, 2016.

SEE ALSO:

"Pressure on Exxon Over Climate Change Intensifies With New Documents" (New York Times)

"Exxon Fights Subpoena in Widening Climate Probe, Citing Violation of Its Constitutional Rights" (InsideClimate News)

"CO2's Role in Global Warming Has Been on the Oil Industry's Radar Since the 1960s" (InsideClimate News)

"Oil Industry Knew Of 'Serious' Climate Concerns More Than 45 Years Ago" (Guardian)