FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 30, 2016
Contact:
Ed Fallon, 515-238-6404, ed@fallonforum.com
Jane Kleeb, 402-705-3622, jane@boldnebraska.org
Bold Alliance Calls on Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller
to Investigate Exxon’s Climate Fraud
Miller’s Office Joined Attorneys General Across the Country Yesterday Calling for Climate Action; Iowans Seek Miller’s Leadership on Exxon’s Climate Fraud
Des Moines — Bold Alliance, a network of citizen-action groups in rural states, today started a petition calling on Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller to launch an investigation into whether oil giant Exxon lied to the public for decades about the dire warnings on climate change the company was receiving from its own in-house scientists.
The call for an Exxon investigation follows Miller’s office standing with Attorneys General across the country yesterday to announce plans to protect the land, water and climate while keeping fossil fuel corporations accountable.
View the petition online: http://bit.ly/exxoniowa
“I was delighted to see that AG Miller will be working with other AGs around the country to further address the climate crisis. Given Attorney General Miller’s long history of taking on corporations that don’t give a hoot about truth or the public good, we strongly urge that he launch an investigation into Exxon’s climate lies,” said Ed Fallon, Bold Iowa director. “Years ago, Miller exposed the lies of Big Tobacco, and for the sake of our public him we now need him to use that experience to tackle Exxon’s campaign of deception.”
“Some of our states’ highest legal experts see the clear indications of fraud that Exxon has engaged in over decades,” said Jane Kleeb, Bold Alliance president. “Exxon knew their business model would make climate change worse, affecting everything from Agriculture to where families can live, and yet they continued to hide the science and fund a network of deception. We look forward to more Attorneys General shining a light on this very dark company.”
BACKGROUND ON EXXON
Award-winning reporting by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times published last September found that since the 1970s, Exxon had been conducting cutting-edge climate research and uncovered fossil fuels’ role in global warming — but the company did not disclose all that it found, and in fact then led efforts from the 1990s to the mid-2000s to deny and sow doubt about the same global warming impacts its own scientists had confirmed.
Last October, Bold signed onto a letter with more than 50 environmental, civil rights and indigenous people’s groups calling on U.S. Atty. General Loretta Lynch to launch a federal probe into Exxon’s systematic misleading of the public on climate risks.
Then, in November 2015, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the launch of a state investigation into whether statements Exxon made to investors about climate risks as recently as 2015 were consistent with the company’s own long-running scientific research.
In January, California Attorney General Kamala Harris also launched a state investigation into whether Exxon repeatedly lied to the public and its shareholders on climate change risks — and whether in doing so, it committed securities fraud or violated environmental laws.
Several members of Congress added to the calls for the launch of a federal probe by the U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — and earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department forwarded their request for an investigation to the FBI.
Yesterday at a press conference, the Attorneys General of Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands both announced the launch of new investigations into Exxon.
NOTE FROM JANE KLEEB ON LAUNCH OF BOLD IOWA, BOLD ALLIANCE
“While fighting Keystone XL, we worked with many ‘small but mighty’ groups and leaders in other states. We realized there was no network for the grassroots groups in ‘red and rural’ states that are fighting Big Oil while also working for clean energy solutions and building a political base of voters who care about our land and water. Ed Fallon is one of those leaders we met along the way, and he is now the State Director for a new group: Bold Iowa. We are proud to announce Bold Nebraska and Bold Iowa are joining forces under a new umbrella group called the Bold Alliance. More states joining the Bold network will be announced soon.” —Jane Kleeb, Bold Alliance president
BACKGROUND: EXXON INVESTIGATIONS
California:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-exxon-global-warming-20160120-story.html
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2461620-2015-10-15doj-exxonmobil.html
Massachusetts:
http://www.reuters.com/article/massachusetts-climatechange-exxon-mobil-idUSL2N171133
BACKGROUND: EXXON’S CLIMATE SCIENCE
“Exxon: The Road Not Taken,” InsideClimate News, 9/16/15.
http://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken
“What Exxon knew about the Earth’s melting Arctic,” Los Angeles Times, 10/9/15.
http://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-arctic
# # #
