For Immediate Release
March 22, 2017
Oakland, CA- With a letter from Executive Director Annie Leonard, Greenpeace USA formally asked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra investigate what Exxon knew about climate change, when it knew it, and what it did with that knowledge.
“The climate chaos we are facing did not happen without responsible parties. It’s time to turn the public spotlight on Exxon’s massive climate coverup, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is just the person to help lead the charge,” Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard said. “Exxon has cost the world decades on climate change action, time the human race cannot afford to waste. The oil company has not only made climate change worse by extracting and burning fossil fuels all over the world, it has also stood in the way of innovation in renewable energy progress.”
Attorney General Xavier Becerra would join the ranks of the New York and Massachusetts attorneys general who are also investigating Exxon. ExxonMobil lawyers meet the New York Attorney General today in a New York courtroom. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is asking the company to turn over additional documents, including emails from when current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used an alias email, “Wayne Tracker,” to discuss climate change when he was Exxon’s CEO.
Greenpeace’s letter to Attorney General Becerra’s office is sent on behalf of more than 300,000 Greenpeace, Inc. supporters, donors, and volunteers in California. In addition to the letter, Greenpeace USA is collecting petitions from its supporters, donors and members in California to be delivered to the office.
Since May 2001, Greenpeace has campaigned to stop ExxonMobil’s colossal climate denial scheme through different projects around the world. In September 2015, InsideClimate News, the Los Angeles Times, and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism revealed that Exxon was researching about the causes of climate change and the dangers of climate disruption since at least the 1970s.
Contact:
Cassady Craighill, [email protected], 828-817-3328
