FORT WORTH – In its latest response to a climate change fraud probe by a coalition of U.S. attorney generals, ExxonMobil filed its own suit against Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Tracy Healey in the Fort Worth Division of the Northern District of Texas on June 15.
Healey was one of 17 attorney generals who earlier this year questioned whether the oil giant deceived its investors and the public by releasing misleading propaganda about global warming. To further the group's cause, Healey recently issued a subpoena ordering ExxonMobil to release 40 years of company documents linked to its study of climate change.
ExxonMobil had previously filed a similar lawsuit against Claude Earl Walker, the attorney general for the U.S. Virgin Islands, who issued a subpoena with the same demands as the one from Healey. Walker and ExxonMobil eventually filed a joint stipulation of dismissal on June 29, stating that both parties mutually agreed to drop the legal actions they brought before the court.
According to Walker, his move to withdraw the subpoena does not signify his retraction from his stance in the climate change war. Rather, the Virgin Islands attorney general believes it would be better for now to focus on the global warming fraud probe initiated by Healey.
Among other things, the Texas-based oil giant said in its suit that Healey's subpoena violates the First and Fourth amendments of the Constitution by prohibiting free speech and calling for an "unreasonable search" of four decades worth of the company's records.