Lawyers from Attorney General Maura Healey's office were in Superior court Wednesday, defending the attorney general's right to investigate Exxon Mobil. Healey launched the investigation in the spring with an accusation the company knew for years it was contributing to climate change.
In March, Healey stood with six attorneys general to announce a collaboration to fight climate change. For Healey, that meant – in part – launching an investigation into Exxon Mobil’s role in contributing to climate change.
“We can all see today the troubling disconnect between what Exxon knew, what industry folks knew, and what the company and industry chose to share with investors and with the American public,” she said at the press conference.
Exxon Mobil fired back at Healey’s investigation, filing its own lawsuit against Healey in a federal court in Texas. Healey’s actually been ordered to appear in a Texas courtroom in that case next week, although her office is trying to get her out of that. The oil company was also in Suffolk Superior Court Wednesday, trying to stop Healey’s investigation. Exxon Mobil attorney, Justin Anderson, said Healey’s investigation is not about alleged deception by the company.
“It’s about the document that the attorney general signed with a number of other attorneys general from other states where they say that our common interest is in ensuring the dissemination of accurate information about climate change," he said. "What law enforcement objective is that? This is about regulating speech on an issue of public concern.”
Anderson called this an example of "viewpoint discrimination."
"It’s about attacking through legal means, through law enforcement power, those who simply are on the other side of a political debate.”
Anderson argued Exxon Mobil isn’t subject to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts courts, since they’re headquartered in Texas, and any comments the company has made about climate change weren’t made in Massachusetts. As for investors, he said, the company hasn’t issued any new stock to investors in Massachusetts during the period in question.
Lawyer Richard Johnston of the attorney general's office rejected all of that.
“Frankly, it seems astounding to our office, and I suspect it would be astounding to some members of the public as well, that a company which is the largest publicly held oil and gas company in the world, which generates millions of dollars every year in revenues from the marketing and sales of petroleum products in Massachusetts, is not conducting business in Massachusetts, and feels it would be unfair for it to have to defend itself in the courts of Massachusetts,” Johnston said.
Johnston argued there’s no reason the Massachusetts Superior court should step aside and abdicate its authority to a federal court in Texas.
“Exxon has really presented no viable reason why it needs to sue the attorney general of Massachusetts in Texas federal court, with respect to a Massachusetts [Civil Investigative Demand], issued by the Massachusetts attorney general, pursuant to Massachusetts law," he said.
It’s not clear yet if Healey herself will be compelled to appear in that Texas courtroom next week.
