Environmental activists lead the charge, claiming the company lied about global warming

Peter Roff
August 31, 2017
Washington Times 

Ever since Big Tobacco reached a deal with the U.S. government to settle the claims against it the folks who profited most from the deal have been looking for ways to replicate it. They haven’t had much success, but not for lack of trying.

No, the trial lawyers and university scholars and public interest activists and media hogs and politicians who found the tobacco case so helpful to them in so many ways tried to get their hooks into Big Snack, Big Soda, Big Pharma, Big Food and other industries without much success. Their only bright spot thus far is they’ve managed to get Big Oil — or Exxon/Mobil at any rate — into court over allegations the company lied for years to the public about the effects of global warming.

The suit is the brainchild of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman whose case was moving along fine until the judge determined Exxon/Mobil had not lied to anyone about the possible connection between the use of fossil fuels and global warming. In fact, he found, they’d been publicizing the potential linkage for some time.

Mr. Schneiderman, who’s not one to give up easily, changed tactics and forged ahead. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the academic community. It was still busy trying to make the case the original charge held water. On August 22, The New York Times published an op-ed by Harvard University post-doctoral fellow Geoffrey Supran and Harvard University History of Science Professor Naomi Oreskes promoting a new finding that did just that.

“Scrutiny is mounting on the world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas company,” they wrote. “On multiple legal fronts the question is being asked: Did Exxon Mobil’s communications about climate change break the law?”

The answer, as the New York judge has already determined, is no. Ms. Oreskes may be an anti-global warming activist but she’s no climate scientist. She’s in a poor position to judge the science of which she claims to know the history but is in an excellent position to develop ideas the so-called environmental community can use as the leading wedge in suits against companies like Exxon/Mobil