ExxonMobil Must Stand Trial Over Alleged Climate Lies – By Chris McGreal (The Guardian) / May 25, 2022
Ruling by Massachusetts’ top court is the latest legal setback for the oil industry.
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Massachusetts’ top court on Tuesday ruled that the nation’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil, must face a trial over accusations that it lied about the climate crisis and covered up the fossil fuel industry’s role in worsening environmental devastation.
Exxon claimed the case, brought by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, was politically motivated and amounted to an attempt to prevent the company from exercising its free speech rights. But the state’s Supreme Judicial Court unanimously dismissed the claim in the latest blow to the oil industry’s attempts to head off a wave of lawsuits across the country over its part in causing global heating.
Healey’s lawsuit accuses Exxon of breaking the state’s consumer protection laws with a decades-long cover-up of what it knew about the impact on the climate of burning fossil fuels. The state also says the company deceived investors about the risks to its business posed by global heating.
Exxon claimed the lawsuit was in breach of legislation against what are known as strategic lawsuits against public participation, used by wealthy individuals and corporations to silence critics. The Massachusetts court ruled that anti-SLAPP laws do not apply to government cases.
