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Members of Congress, three presidential candidates, dozens of climate scientists and thousands of Environmental Action members are calling for an investigation into Exxon and Big Oil’s crimes against the climate. Tell California Attorney General (AG) Kamala Harris to answer the call.
Friend,
Exxon is already under investigation in New York and in the court of public opinion. But California has a special role to play in this climate justice crusade, and not just because it's our largest state.
California has suffered from some of the worst impacts of climate change — including a massive drought, epic wildfire season and massive die-offs of forests and species.1 Those damages have cost lives and livelihoods that could have been avoided if we'd taken action decades ago to leave fossil fuels in the ground, switch to clean energy and invest in at-risk communities. As such, the call to investigate what #ExxonKnew is coming loudest and clearest from the Golden State.
Kamala Harris, as the AG of California, has a unique opportunity to demand answers and action from the world’s biggest polluters. Harris has already proven she can take on big corporations and win by investigating the mortgage crisis.2 Now, local reports from the Los Angeles Times are firing up California's congressional delegation and even state democratic activists to demand action in California.3 Click here to tell Harris to answer the call of history, and her constituents, by opening an investigation into Exxon and Big Oil’s climate crimes.
Investigative stories by InsideClimate News and the L.A. Times show Exxon was at the forefront of global warming research for decades until it launched campaigns to cast doubt on science and delay action. Reports just published in the last few days have hinted at a massive conspiracy between Exxon and most of the world’s other Big Oil companies to perpetuate a climate of doubt and denial.4
From the campaign trail to the halls of Congress, to right here on the internet, we’ve helped to build a massive campaign. The campaign calls for federal and state prosecutors to investigate what Exxon and Big Oil knew about climate change, and whether they broke the law by sowing doubt and dissent with the public in spite of that knowledge.
U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, a former military prosecutor, as well as one of our earliest supporters said, "When things go wrong—and it is very clear to me that things are wrong with Exxon—I have a moral obligation to speak as loudly as I can to bring light to the issue. …This is about the future as much as it is about the past.”3 Sign here to tell California AG Kamala Harris to listen to Lieu, the L.A. Times and to millions of us around the country calling for justice, by opening her own investigation into Exxon and Big Oil's crimes against the climate.
Thanks for CA-lling out Kamala,
Drew and the Exxon Accountability crew at Environmental Action
1 - Morin, Monte. Sierra Nevada Snowpack is Much Worse Than Thought: A 500-Year Low. The Los Angeles Times. September 14, 2015.
- Howard, Brian Clark. Why did LA Drop 96 Million 'Shade Balls' Into Its Water? National Geographic. August 12, 2015.
- Ford, Matt. The West's Wildfire Season Gets Worse. The Atlantic. August 22, 2015.
2 - Dan Morain, Kamala Harris trying to balance big cases and major campaigns on a large stage, The Sacramento Bee, October 23, 2015
3 - David Hasmeyer, 2015: The Year We Found Out #ExxonKnew, InsideClimate News, December 30, 2015
4 - Amy Lieberman and Susanne Rust, Big Oil braced for global warming while it fought regulations, The LA Times, December 31, 201
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