Investigates Exxon Mobile for falsifying climate data

New York attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman opens an investigation against Exxon Mobile over whether the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change or to investors about how such risks might hurt the oil business. Schneiderman say that over a period of ten years, Exxon Mobile funded outside groups that sought to undermine climate science, even as its in-house scientists were outlining the potential consequences to company executives. Exxon Mobil says the company had funded mainstream climate science since the 1970s, had published dozens of scientific papers on the topic and had disclosed climate risks to investors.

We unequivocally reject the allegations that Exxon Mobil has suppressed climate change research…We stopped funding [groups that denied serious climate risks] in the middle part of the past decade because a handful of them were making the uncertainty of the science their focal point. Frankly, we made the call that we needed to back away from supporting the groups that were undercutting the actual risk” of climate change. We recognize the risk.