About a year after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched an investigation into Exxon Mobil regarding the company’s approach to climate change, the attorney general’s subpoena has been published, confirming that the investigation centers on alleged financial fraud.
In the subpoena made public last week by Exxon, Schneiderman’s office cites a few New York laws governing fraud and securities, including the Martin Act, as ClimateWire noted. The Martin Act gives the attorney general considerable power to investigate and fight fraud.
The subpoena also reveals the scope of documents the attorney general’s office has requested. It demanded communications regarding Exxon’s research on climate change, documents showing how Exxon disclosed its findings on climate change to investors and to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and any consumer complaints regarding climate change, among other documents.
The subpoena appears to confirm reports that the New York attorney general is looking into whether Exxon hid from investors what the company knew about climate change and its potential impacts on business.
The New York probe, along with those subsequently launched by other state attorneys general, has come under scrutiny from Republicans on the House Science Committee. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the chair of the committee, has subpoenaed the New York and Massachusetts attorneys general, arguing that the state probes are politically motivated and could intimidate scientists.
Read the subpoena via ClimateWire:
I read about this when Larmar Smith (Dummy, R) Texas first threatened a host of AG’s with subpoenas. It’s an amazing precendent, threatening a state’s AG, not with interfering with a congrssional probe, but merely having the audacity to question Exxon’s veracity over the years on climate change!
To their credit, each and every AG so far has declined to answer the subpoenas or appear in front of his circus of a committee. Smith can bluster all he wants but now he’s the toothless fool without any further ability to impede or harm the AG’s investigations.
More reason we need to regain the House and send this all-hat/no cattle Texan back to shite stompin in the bull pen!
“Lamar Smith (R-TX), the chair of the committee, has subpoenaed the New York and Massachusetts attorneys general, arguing that the state probes are politically motivated and could intimidate scientists.”
These idiots can’t NOT doublethink. I’m beginning to think it’s congenital.
And he would know, since that is exactly what he tried to do with NOAA last year:
What the AG is questioning is Exxon’s compliance with SEC disclosure rules. IOW, did Exxon deliberately hide materially significant information from its shareholders. It doesn’t actually matter if the science turns out later to be inaccurate. The question is, were the findings materially significant…would it affect the value of Exxon’s stock if these findings were made public? That’s a much lower bar than, Was the science accurate.
The crucial factor here is that this case is not about science. The science can be completely bogus, and the case still exists that Exxon may have withheld materially significant information from its shareholders – a violation of fiduciary duty.