ExxonMobil has taken California's attorney general to court, claiming Rob Bonta's office conspired with environmental activists to defame the company by falsely claiming the company has lied about its so-called "advanced recycling" programs for plastics.
Environmental activists in response have condemned the energy giant’s lawsuit, calling the litigation a diversion from real issues and an attempt at intimidation.
The oil company filed the federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas in Beaumont on Jan. 6 against Attorney General Rob Bonta, the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay, Baykeeper Inc. and the Australia-based Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund (IEJF). The lawsuit comes in the wake of Bonta filing a lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court in September, accusing ExxonMobil of a decades-long campaign of deception about its ability to recycle plastic waste.
Bonta’s lawsuit paralleled separate legal actions by the environmental groups that sought to expose the oil company’s role in the “global plastics pollution crisis,” according to the Attorney General’s Office.
ExxonMobil’s complaint accuses Bonta and environmental groups of repeatedly attacking the oil company with false accusations of being a “liar” and calling its plastics recycling efforts a “sham.” The IEJF is an Australian charity founded by a mining conglomerate that competes with ExxonMobil in the field of carbon-reduction projects, according to the lawsuit.
“The IEJF retained U.S. lawyers (Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP) to engage in ‘political activities,’ including filing a lawsuit against ExxonMobil,” the complaint states. “The IEJF did not want to sue in its own name; instead, the law firm’s first task was to recruit and enlist willing plaintiffs to stand in for the foreign Interests’ agenda.”
The Cotchett firm, several of its partners and other members of the firm have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Bonta’s political campaigns, the lawsuit says.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice dismissed the legal action as a distraction.
“This is another attempt from ExxonMobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception,” the spokesman said in an email to the Southern California Record. “The attorney general is proud to advance his lawsuit against ExxonMobil and looks forward to vigorously litigating this case in court.”
The Sierra Club said the initial lawsuit filed against the oil company alleged violations of a California public nuisance law and unfair competition as a result of the company’s alleged concealment of environmental damage caused by plastics.
“Exxon is clearly confused about the difference between defamation and accountability,” a Sierra Club spokesman, Jonathan Berman, said in a prepared statement. “This lawsuit is a shameless attempt at intimidation by a multibillion-dollar polluter corporation that covered up its climate-change denial for decades. The Sierra Club will not sit back as ExxonMobil attempts to use their billions to bully those standing up for the health of working families.”
The ExxonMobil defamation lawsuit is viewed by some observers as evidence of the oil company taking more aggressive actions against its critics. Last year, the energy company sued an activist investor group called Arjuna Capital, which initially proposed to submit a plan to ExxonMobil shareholders to reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions. The federal lawsuit was eventually dismissed by a federal court in Texas.
In the defamation lawsuit, the company defends its advanced plastics recycling program as effective and supported in other states.
“It is a proven technology that allows numerous different, difficult-to-recycle plastics to be aggregated and converted into raw materials for making valuable new products, such as fuel, lubricants, chemicals and plastic,” the lawsuit states. “To date, ExxonMobil has recycled over 70 million pounds of plastic waste. That is 70 million pounds of waste that might otherwise have been sent to or remained in landfills.”
The defendants have harmed the company’s reputation and ability to sign contracts with prospective customers, according to the complaint.