The Color of Money

House leader fed up with Exxon climate probe

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Science Committee, sent a letter to the attorneys general in Massachusetts and New York, and a consortium of environmental advocacy groups, seeking documents tied to charges accusing Exxon of misleading the public and investors about climate change.

"If you continue to refuse to provide information responsive to the committee's requests on a voluntary basis, I will be left with no alternative but to utilize the tools delegated to the committee by the House of Representatives," his letter read. "Specifically, the committee will consider use of compulsory process to obtain responsive documents in the possession, custody, or control of your office."

Smith in his letter suggested the probe into Exxon may be skewed in favor of a particular agenda and said the extent of the examination so far was "overbroad."

That's lawyer-speak for "You're full of shit."

The New York Attorney General's office issued a subpoena to Exxon last year following a series of reports claiming the company was misleading investors decades ago about the potential impact its sector had on the environment.

This year, New York City pension fund managers said they'd move away from coal and the philanthropic arm of the Rockefeller family, which amassed its fortune from oil, said the "morally reprehensible conduct" of Exxon Mobil was in part behind a decision to divest from fossil fuels.

In other words, your public sector pension funds are upside down due to your half-cocked, sanctimoniously-derived poor investment decisions. In an attempt to recover the lost funds without looking like the bunch of incompetent mouthbreathers you actually are, you're trying to sue the people you divested from.

The House committee has called your bluff. Come clean or go fuck yourselves. Or better, do both.


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