WA AG Bob Ferguson: Prosecute Exxon for Climate Deception

Newly revealed documents show that Exxon’s own scientists were aware of and studying the dangerous impacts of greenhouse gases in the 1970s and 1980s -- until Exxon’s leadership decided to shut down the research and promote climate denial instead, in order to protect the company’s unfathomably large profits.

Now Washingtonians -- like all other American citizens -- are suffering from the damages of Exxon's unlimited greenhouse pollution. The unprecedented drought, fueled by global warming, caused over a billion dollars in damages and devastated our farmers. Extreme storms have brought death and mayhem to our state. Intense wildfires are costing the state budget tens of millions of dollars a year. Sea level rise is already harming Washington's coastal communities. And the risks of continued global warming pollution to the state are many times greater.

The Washington Attorney General's Office should use all of the tools at its disposal to prosecute Exxon’s deliberate deception -- such as state RICO laws, Washington's Unfair Business Practices statute (Chapter 19.86 RCW), consumer fraud statutes, or any other laws that are intended to protect Washingtonian citizens from deliberate corporate misconduct.

The attorneys general of 46 states successfully sued tobacco companies to pay for decades of deadly deceit -- now it’s time for Exxon and the fossil-fuel industry to pay for their climate crimes.