Date: 8/10/2020
It has been reported recently that Minnesota Attorney General, Keith Ellison, has filed a ground-breaking lawsuit in state court against Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries, and The American Petroleum Institute (API). The suit is focused on false advertising, deceptive trade practices, and consumer fraud, which is a violation of Minnesota state law.
This suit is groundbreaking because it does not accuse the defendants of causing climate change. Rather, it charges them with violating MinnesotaÕs consumer protection laws. The approach is not unlike that used to win multi-billion-dollar settlements from the tobacco industry. There is evidence of a 30-year effort which spent millions of dollars to defraud consumers about climate change and how fossil fuels contributed to the change.
Now, we know the truth.
The lawsuit also highlights a direct connection to climate justice. At the top of the first page of the lawsuit it states, ÒWarming will continue with devastating economic and public-health consequences across the state, in particular, disproportionately impact people living in poverty and people of color.Ó
A U.S. District Court Judge returned a similar case, brought against Exxon Mobil by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, to state court in March for adjudication. Exxon tried to move the case to Federal Court where there is a history of favorable decisions. Your readers can expect to see much more activity on this front in the coming months.
Frank Smith
Longmeadow
