海角大神

Four Congressmen asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate ExxonMobil, one of the world鈥檚 largest oil companies, suggesting the company knew about climate change and failed to disclose the associated risks associated with their business.聽

聽to SEC Chair Rep. Ted W. Lieu (D) of Calif.; Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D) of Mass.; Rep. Peter Welch (D), of Vt.; and Rep. Matthew Cartwright (D) of Penn., asked the committee to examine ExxonMobil鈥檚 knowledge of anthropogenic聽climate change as far back as 1977. As a publicly traded company, ExxonMobil must follow SEC 鈥� as they apply to business or legal developments relating to the issue of climate change,鈥� for the benefit of their investors.聽

"What Exxon did here is not okay," Eric Pooley, a senior vice president at the Environment Defense Fund, told 海角大神 in a phone interview. "This company is so wealthy, and so powerful, that we are not going to get all the facts unless someone with investigative authority looks at this."

As of press time, Exxon had not responded to this reporter's request for an interview.

鈥淐ompanies need if they massively defraud the public. This is owed to the American people and to shareholders. It is also the law,鈥� Representative Lieu told InsideClimate News in an email. 鈥淭here has been enough evidence uncovered in the media reports to warrant an SEC investigation to see if ExxonMobil violated securities laws.鈥�

Lieu is referring to recent reports by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times that uncover conflicting accounts of the company鈥檚 early knowledge regarding climate change.聽

While publicly discrediting climate science, engineers at the company were quietly incorporating climate-change predictions into their business models, suggesting a 鈥済ap between Exxon Mobil鈥檚 public position and on the issue of climate change,鈥� according to the Times. After several internal studies during the 1980s suggested 鈥渃limate implications of 鈥� would impact the company鈥檚 fossil-fuel development, ExxonMobil conducted climate research alongside university and government scientists.

"We knew they spent tens of millions spreading doubt and confusion. We knew that part," Mr. Pooley told the Monitor. "What we didn't know was that climate scientists had been briefing executives on the reality of climate change for years. The executives were making decisions about Arctic exploration from cost-benefit analyses, assuming the reality of climate change."聽

Between 1991 and 2001, Exxon released varying statements to shareholders. The company gradually progressed from reporting little scientific evidence of climate change to considering potential significant impacts, but related to climate change were weak compared to their actual internal investigations.

鈥淚t turns out Exxon about climate change: it conducted some of the original research,鈥� Bill McKibbin, an American environmentalist and founder of the climate activism group 350.org, writes in The New Yorker. As early as 1977, an Exxon senior scientist named James Black says he informed the company鈥檚 management of a regarding man-made CO₂ and a corresponding greenhouse effect.聽

In recent decades, 鈥淓xxon instead focused on casting doubt on global warming warnings鈥� and spending over $1 million on climate-denial groups in 2014 alone, 海角大神 reported. Since 1998, Exxon has spent over $22 million on climate change denial, reports Greenpeace through their , which provides an interactive map of funding between key organizations, scientists, and Exxon executives.

Within the past week, all three Democratic presidential candidates, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) of Vermont, and former Maryland Governor Martin O鈥橫alley, have called on the Department of Justice related accusations against Exxon.聽

"The 20 years that have been lost while we debate whether climate change was real or not? That didn't have to happen," says Pooley. "They had the opportunity to tell the world the truth, but instead they went the other way to mislead the public."