ExxonMobil to go to court over climate deception lawsuit

July 26th, 2024

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong’s consumer protection case against ExxonMobil will advance towards trial, court rules.

This week, a Connecticut judge denied ExxonMobil’s motion to dismiss Tong’s lawsuit, stating that because Exxon is registered to do business in Connecticut as a foreign corporation, it is subject to personal jurisdiction in the state.

Tong filed a lawsuit against the oil giant in 2020, alleging that ExxonMobil has orchestrated “an ongoing, systematic campaign of lies and deception” to hide from the public that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change.

The lawsuit was filed under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA), stating that ExxonMobil “knew decades ago that the release of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, when fossil fuels are combusted, was a substantial factor in causing global warming”.

Tong claimed ExxonMobil knew as early as the 1950s and 1960s that the company’s activities were contributing to climate change and said by the early 1980s it was able to predict “the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the corresponding temperature increase for the year 2020”.

The lawsuit seeks to make ExxonMobil pay $5,000 for each time it violated CUTPA; disclose climate research and studies in its possession; and pay “equitable relief” for “past and ongoing deceptive acts and practices associated with climate change” that will require costs to mitigate, adapt and make Connecticut more resilient, Common Dreams reports.

ExxonMobil and other large oil companies face similar lawsuits Massachusetts, Hawai`i, Colorado and Maryland.

The company also recently saw its own lawsuit against activist ESG shareholder Arjuna Capital tossed out by a federal judge.

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