California's attorney general has widened the state's legal fight against energy companies, now claiming in a new lawsuit that petroleum company ExxonMobil misled the state and consumers about the virtues of plastics recycling.
On Sept. 22, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court.
"ExxonMobil, the largest producer of plastic polymers used to manufacture single-use plastics, caused or substantially contributed to the deluge of plastic pollution that has harmed and continues to harm California’s environment, wildlife, natural resources, and people," Bonta's office wrote in the complaint.
"ExxonMobil not only promotes and produces the largest amount of plastic that becomes plastic waste in California, it has also deceived Californians for almost half a century by promising that recycling could and would solve the ever-growing plastic waste crisis. All the while, ExxonMobil has known that mechanical recycling, and now 'advanced recycling,' will never be able to process more than a tiny fraction of the plastic waste it produces."
In the complaint, Bonta claims this alleged deception has contributed to the "extremely costly and difficult to eradicate" amounts of so-called "microplastics" in the environment, which the complaint claims "pose an even greater threat of harm to the environment and all living things, including human bodies."
For decades, governments and industry have touted to Americans and across the globe the supposed benefits of recycling plastics. However, in recent years, that message has proven flawed, at best, as studies repeatedly reveal that the capacity to recycle plastics into useable products is limited compared to the cost of recycling and the volume of plastics used every day.
While Americans have reliably continued to fill their recycling bins and bags with plastic items they believe are staying out of landfills, the waste disposal companies have simply landfilled the vast bulk of the plastic waste.
For instance, according to a study from the federal government's National Renewable Energy Lab, even using so-called "advanced recycling" techniques, no more than 14% of plastic waste is recycled into new products.
According to the California complaint, ExxonMobil has been a driving force behind the pro-recycling message, which Bonta asserted amounted to a message to deceive Americans into believing that recycling would be a "cure-all for plastic waste" to allow the company to sell more plastic products, and particularly single-use plastic products and containers.
In a statement in response to the lawsuit, ExxonMobil said California's lawsuit is merely an attempt by the state to absolve itself of its share of the blame for helping to cause the supposed plastics crisis by failing to work with the company and the plastics production industry to create solutions to "keep plastic out of landfills."
The company further defended its "advanced recycling" techniques, saying they are creating "real solutions" for plastics recycling.
The California lawsuit is but the latest example of so-called "lawfare" lodged by the state of California and other primarily Democratic governments against the oil industry.
California and other governments have hammered the industry with lawsuits accusing them of misleading consumers into using the oil and gas products that continue to fuel the U.S. economy, but which they claim has worsened "climate change."
California filed its "climate change" suit in 2023, claiming consumers would not have filled their gas tanks and used fuels like natural gas to power, heat and cool their homes and businesses, if the companies had not allegedly leveled with consumers about the alleged harmful effects of the fuels.
The new lawsuit against ExxonMobil accuses the company of violating state public nuisance, pollution and false advertising laws.
The state is seeking court orders requiring ExxonMobil to pay potentially massive amounts of money through "disgorgement" and civil penalties.
At the same time as Bonta filed the state's lawsuit, environmental activist groups, including the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay Inc., and Baykeeper Inc., filed their own lawsuit, leveling similar claims against ExxonMobil.
That lawsuit was also filed in San Francisco County Superior Court. The environmental groups are represented by attorneys Niall P. McCarthy, Tyson C. Redenbarger and Grace Y. Park, of the firm of Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy, of Burlingame.