New York Sues Exxon Over Climate-Change Disclosures--Update
24 Octobre 2018 - 10:45PM
Dow Jones News
By Corinne Ramey and Bradley Olson
The state of New York sued Exxon Mobil Corp. on Wednesday,
accusing the oil giant of misleading investors about the risks that
climate-change regulations pose to its business.
The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, said
that for years Exxon told its investors that it adequately
accounted for greenhouse-gas regulations by applying a so-called
proxy cost -- an estimate of the effects of future events -- to its
business planning and investment decisions. In reality, Exxon
applied either a lower proxy cost or no cost at all, the lawsuit
claims.
"Exxon built a facade to deceive investors into believing that
the company was managing the risks of climate-change regulation to
its business when, in fact, it was intentionally and systematically
underestimating or ignoring them, contrary to its public
representations, " New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said
in a statement.
In 2105, the New York attorney general's office began an
investigation into the matter, for which Exxon produced more than 3
million pages of documents. The U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission also looked into whether the oil giant misled investors
about its accounting practices and climate-change risks, but ended
the probe earlier this year without penalizing the company.
The New York suit alleges Exxon executives, including former
chairman and chief executive Rex Tillerson, knew for years that the
company was using a second set of proxy costs, from undisclosed
internal guidance, that were lower than the ones publicly
disclosed.
"These baseless allegations are a product of closed-door
lobbying by special interests, political opportunism and the
attorney general's inability to admit that a three-year
investigation has uncovered no wrongdoing," Exxon spokesman Scott
Silvestri said in a statement in response to Wednesday's
filing.
Mr. Tillerson couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The attorney general's office is requesting damages to correct
what the lawsuit says are inaccurate past representations and to
change its practices going forward.
"Through its fraudulent scheme, Exxon in effect erected a
Potemkin village to create the illusion that it had fully
considered the risks of future climate-change regulation and had
factored those risks into its business operations," the lawsuit
says.
In one instance, the suit claims, Exxon failed to apply
appropriate proxy costs to oil sands projects in Canada, which led
to the company understating the projects' long-term impact to its
cash-flow forecasts by more than $25 billion.
The suit expands on allegations the state filed in court last
year attempting to compel Exxon to release additional documents and
comply with requests in its investigation. Exxon said at the time
that the allegations were "inaccurate and irresponsible" and that
the documents it had produced showed it had accurately described
how it uses a proxy cost of carbon.
The company has alleged that Ms. Underwood's predecessor, Eric
Schneiderman, was part of a growing campaign involving other state
attorneys general and environmental activists to force Exxon to pay
for climate-change effects and mitigation due to its previous
research on the issue. Exxon has denied those allegations.
"The company looks forward to refuting these claims as soon as
possible and getting this meritless civil lawsuit dismissed," Mr.
Silvestri said.
Several recent federal lawsuits in which municipalities such as
New York City and San Francisco sought damages from Exxon and other
companies have been dismissed. A federal judge in July said global
warming must be fixed "by our political branches," not through
litigation.
--
Patrick Thomas contributed to this article.
Write to Corinne Ramey at Corinne.Ramey@wsj.com and Bradley
Olson at Bradley.Olson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 24, 2018 16:30 ET (20:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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