To: George Jepsen, Connecticut Attorney General, Matthew Denn, Delaware Attorney General, Doug Chin, Hawaii Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General, Tom Miller, Iowa Attorney General, Janet Mills, Maine Attorney General, Br...

State Attorneys General: Prosecute Exxon for Climate Deception

Launch an investigation of Exxon and its fellow fossil-fuel companies for deliberate and malicious climate deception.

Why is this important?

"Newly revealed documents show that Exxon’s own scientists were aware of and studying the dangerous impacts of greenhouse gases in the 1970s and 1980s -- until Exxon’s leadership decided to shut down the research and promote climate denial instead, in order to protect the company’s unfathomably large profits.

Now American citizens in every state of the nation are suffering from the damages of Exxon's unlimited greenhouse pollution. Devastating storms, catastrophic droughts, torrential floods, unprecedented wildfires, and accelerating sea level rise fueled by global warming have already caused billions of dollars in property loss, and led to death or suffering for millions of Americans. And the risks of continued global warming pollution to the United States are many times greater.

Every Attorney General's Office should use all of the tools at their disposal to prosecute Exxon’s deliberate deception -- such as state RICO laws, unfair trade practices laws, consumer fraud statutes, or any other laws that are intended to protect American citizens from deliberate corporate misconduct.

The state attorneys general of New York and California have already begun investigations into ExxonMobil and the fossil-fuel industry of their climate deception. Every state AG should join in to protect their citizens as well.

The attorneys general of 46 states successfully sued tobacco companies to pay for decades of deadly deceit -- now it’s time for Exxon and the fossil-fuel industry to pay for their climate crimes."