CT Sues ExxonMobil, Claims Company 'Lied' About Climate Change

CONNECTICUT — The State of Connecticut has filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, contending the fuel conglomerate knew about climate change and "purposefully took action to conceal these facts from all of us and the American people."

State Attorney General William Tong announced the suit at a news conference on Monday.

"Today I sued ExxonMobil for lying to Connecticut and the American people," Tong said. The AG said that ExxonMobil knew about "the debilitating effects of climate change, the catastrophic effects of sea level rise, and our warming planet" as far back as the 1950s, but kept that info secret to protect profits.

Tong said that EM was on the vanguard of developing climate science, "and they had a choice: They could have shared that climate science with all of us, and they could have shown us the way to confront the climate crisis and reverse the effects of climate change, but in the late 80s they made a very different decision."

ExxonMobil instead expended its considerable resources for a "campaign of deception" with the purpose of downplaying the effects of climate change, according to Tong.

Betsey Wingfield, deputy commissioner in the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, joined Tong and said the intensity of the rainfalls and number of 90-degree days could be traced to climate change. She said she expects a 20-inch rise in the sea level by 2050.

The AG said that his office has taken two years to build the state's case and is "very confident" in its prospects. He compared it to the largest civil litigation settlement in U.S. history, in which tobacco companies were required to pay the states and territories billions of dollars in yearly installments.

Tong said he likes the state's chances in the pending litigation because there are no statutes of limitation in Connecticut, allowing the team of 15 lawyers he has assigned to the case the freedom to "go back to the 1950s."

The state is "seeking a disgorgement of the profits that ExxonMobil has made selling gasoline (while) concealing the truth about climate science. We're also asking ExxonMobil to step forward and to pay restitution for what we have already spent."

Tong said the state had spent billions on infrastructure following recent hurricanes and wants ExxonMobil "to step up with its tremendous resources" and pay for it.

"We're going to fight them tooth and nail," Tong said, "and we're going to make them pay."