Tag: Exxon

It is in this context that businesses, particularly manufacturers, have become skeptical of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s legal action against ExxonMobil as a centerpiece of her efforts to combat global climate change. Along with her counterpart in New York, she is breaking new ground by using state police power against a business to achieve a public policy goal. The latest twist and turn in Healey’s inquiry is that the US Supreme Court has now asked Healey to explain why her investigation of ExxonMobil’s climate change activities is a legitimate use of her authority. This investigation is part of a multi-front effort to use courts and lawsuits to circumvent Congress and drive climate change policy. drive divestment from Exxon, [and] drive Exxon and climate change into the center for the 2016 election.” These same lawyers have also been behind lawsuits that towns and counties have been filing in the past couple of years to make ExxonMobil and other energy companies pay for sea walls and infrastructure projects to deal with impacts of climate change. Sending a civil investigative demand to a private business is a powerful law enforcement tool. Now, all eyes are on the Supreme Court. Justice Ruth Ginsburg, writing for the court, explained that suing energy producers over climate change is not the proper way to set American energy policy. The question for the court this time is whether Healey has the jurisdiction to conduct this investigation. If the court takes the case, it could help curb politically motivated litigation against the private sector.