(task) Exxon Mobil Sued Over Climate Change Cover-Up | Huffington Post

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> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/exxonmobil-lawsuit-conservation-law-foundation-climate-change_us_57ec1512e4b024a52d2c5ae5?section=& <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/exxonmobil-lawsuit-conservation-law-foundation-climate-change_us_57ec1512e4b024a52d2c5ae5?section=&>
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> Exxon Mobil Sued Over Climate Change Cover-Up
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> Exxon Mobil spokesman Todd Spitler said the lawsuit is “yet another attempt to use the courts to promote a political agenda.” He said the company will vigorously fight it.
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> “This lawsuit is based on discredited and inaccurate claims by activists about Exxon Mobil’s nearly 40-year history of support for climate research that was conducted publicly in conjunction with the Department of Energy, academics and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” Spitler told The Huffington Post in an email. “To suggest that we had reached definitive conclusions, decades before the world’s experts and while climate science was in an early stage of development, is not credible.”
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> Reports last year by InsideClimate News <http://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken> and the Los Angeles Times <http://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-research/> found Exxon executives were aware of the climate risks associated with carbon dioxide emissions in the 1980s, but funded research to cover up those risks and block solutions. In a more recent investigation <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oil-cover-up-climate_us_570e98bbe4b0ffa5937df6ce>, the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law <http://www.ciel.org/> uncovered documents that show the oil industry, including Humble Oil (now Exxon Mobil), was on notice about the potential role of fossil fuels in CO2 emissions no later than 1957 <https://www.smokeandfumes.org/#/documents/document7> and was “shaping science to shape public opinion <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oil-cover-up-climate_us_570e98bbe4b0ffa5937df6ce>” even earlier, in the 1940s.
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> Though the lawsuit accuses Exxon Mobil of failing to fortify its facility in Everett, oil companies, including Exxon Mobil <http://graphics.latimes.com/oil-operations/>, have redesigned oil and gas rigs in the face of climate change.
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> As early as the 1980s, oil companies were beginning to invest in taller oil rigs <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/big-oil-emissions_us_573c9d81e4b0aee7b8e8a046> that could withstand rising sea levels and the impacts of hurricanes <https://www.smokeandfumes.org/fumes/moments/9>, documents uncovered in the Center for International Environmental Law investigation show. Carroll Muffett, the center’s president, called it “an example of the profound distinction of how these companies were protecting their own interests <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/big-oil-emissions_us_573c9d81e4b0aee7b8e8a046>” and not the public’s.
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> The Conservation Law Foundation lawsuit says Exxon Mobil has been well aware of the impacts and risks of climate change.
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> “Despite knowing of the certainty of rising temperatures and rising sea levels since as early as the 1970s, Exxon Mobil did not use its findings to prepare its Everett Terminal for such risks,” the complaint says.