In November, U.S. Reps. Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier, Democrats from California, had requested alongside other House Democrats that the DOJ investigate whether ExxonMobil violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and other laws for failing to disclose truthful information to investors and the public regarding climate science. In a Jan. 12 letter made public Wednesday, the DOJ told Lieu and DeSaulnier that it referred their request to the FBI.
“The FBI is the investigative arm of the department, upon which we rely to conduct the initial fact finding in federal cases,” the letter from Assistant Attorney General Peter J. Kadzik said. “The FBI will determine whether an investigation is warranted.”
It’s unclear whether the letter, posted Wednesday by the nonprofit InsideClimate News, means a probe is likely. The letter said the DOJ referred the matter to the FBI “as a courtesy.”
ExxonMobil did not respond directly to the letter, but restated its defense against allegations that the energy giant knew fossil fuel burning would help drive the Earth’s temperatures to dangerous levels but publicly worked to undermine scientific claims of similar findings.
“ExxonMobil has included information about the business risk of climate change for many years in our 10-K, corporate citizenship report and in other reports to shareholders,” the company said in a statement. “Media and environmental activists have used publicly available materials from the company’s archives to deliberately distort ExxonMobil’s nearly 40-year history of climate research, which was conducted publicly in conjunction with the Department of Energy, academics and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”
Some environmental groups said the DOJ letter spells trouble for the oil company.
“This is turning into a nightmare for Exxon,” environmental watchdog 350.org said in a statement. “No company wants to hear their name and ‘criminal’ in the same sentence.”
Examinations into ExxonMobil’s role have been mounting.
Media reports last year had indicated that the company worked to cast doubt on climate change science — by, for example, funding politicians and campaigns that expressed doubt over climate change science — even though ExxonMobil scientists were aware of fossil fuels' role in climate change as early as the 1970s. InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times were at the forefront of those reports.
Then, in October, several environmental groups and civil rights groups called on the DOJ to investigate allegations of a climate change cover-up by ExxonMobil.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched a similar probe the following month, saying he issued a subpoena ordering the energy giant to turn over documents related to its climate change knowledge.
And reports in January revealed that California Attorney General Kamala Harris opened an investigation into whether the company concealed its knowledge about climate change from the public and investors. Harris' probe will investigate whether ExxonMobil violated securities and environmental laws by concealing knowledge from investors of the risk climate change posed to the company, according to media reports.
Lieu and DeSaulnier did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
--Editing by Edrienne Su.
