Press Releases
July 27, 2021
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Center for Climate Integrity is calling on newly confirmed Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim to heed pending requests from six attorneys general and nine U.S. Senators for the Department of Justice to proactively support state and municipal lawsuits seeking to hold major fossil fuel companies accountable for lying to the public about climate damages they knew their products would cause.
Just last month, ExxonMobil’s senior federal lobbyist admitted on tape that the company has used “shadow groups” to undermine climate science.
Kim was confirmed by the Senate today to lead the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement:
“We congratulate Assistant Attorney General Kim on his confirmation. Under his leadership, we hope that the Justice Department will act on President Biden’s pledge to support lawsuits seeking to hold polluters accountable.
“The fossil fuel industry predicted, caused, and lied about the catastrophic climate damages that are now devastating communities across the country. It’s time for the DOJ to make clear that it stands on the side of the American people, not lying polluters.
“The Justice Department has a clear mandate to hold polluters accountable and investigate acts of fraud — especially those as consequential as the fossil fuel industry’s concerted, decades-long campaign to mislead and lie to the American public about the catastrophic climate damages they knew their products would cause.”
Background on Climate Accountability Lawsuits and Calls for DOJ Action:
Since 2017, the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia, as well as 20 city and county governments in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and Washington, have filed lawsuits to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about their products’ role in climate change.
President Biden has support for such lawsuits, and as a candidate, he pledged to order the Department of Justice to “strategically support ongoing plaintiff-driven climate litigation against polluters.”
In April, the six attorneys general wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging DOJ to reverse the positions it took in support of the fossil fuel defendants during the Trump administration, explaining that DOJ’s position undermines legal efforts to hold those companies accountable for climate harms in their states and contradicts President Biden’s pledge.
In May, nine U.S. Senators, led by Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, wrote a similar letter that urged the DOJ to “reassess” its previous support of the fossil fuel defendants and “consider launching its own investigation into the same deceptive practices that lie at the heart of these lawsuits.”
During Garland’s confirmation hearing, Blumenthal told Garland that “nothing could be so important” as the department taking action to hold ExxonMobil and other oil and gas companies accountable “for lying to the American public about the devastating effects of these products on climate change.”