Exxon Seeking Injunction Against Climate-Change Investigation

By Bradley Olson 

Exxon Mobil Corp. is seeking an injunction against the Massachusetts attorney general, alleging that a wide-ranging investigation into the oil company is politically motivated and violates its constitutional rights.

Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, wants to block a Massachusetts subpoena that sought documents relating to climate change science research and investor communications on the topic dating back 40 years. The company filed its motion on Wednesday in a federal court in the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker are all investigating whether Exxon misrepresented its understanding of climate change to investors and the public. The company has already turned over hundreds of thousands of pages of documents to Mr. Schneiderman.

Exxon called Ms. Healey's allegations "nothing more than a weak pretext for an unlawful exercise of government power to further political objectives," the company wrote in the filing.

Exxon also said that the subpoena violates its right to free speech, Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure and the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause.

Ms. Healey's office is reviewing the motion, a spokeswoman for her office said.

The 33-page injunction filing is the company's most sharply worded rebuttal so far to investigations launched last year into what Exxon has known about climate change since the 1970s.

Republican lawmakers have criticized the probes into Exxon by Democratic state attorneys general, a development that shows the degree to which the matter has become political football.

The initial probe began last year when Mr. Schneiderman subpoenaed Exxon and took on renewed urgency in March when he, Ms. Healey and Mr. Walker joined former Vice President Al Gore and several state representatives to discuss their work to examine the company's record.

In its Wednesday filing, Exxon said the investigations are "the culmination of years of planning," referring to a 2012 meeting in which environmental activists discussed a strategy that included using the subpoena power of attorneys general to obtain records of fossil fuel companies.

Participants in the meeting, which took place in La Jolla, Calif., also discussed how such documents could pave the way for litigation akin to that leveled successfully against tobacco companies for their role in researching and misconstruing the risks of smoking.

Write to Bradley Olson at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 15, 2016 15:56 ET (19:56 GMT)

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