Since last November, ExxonMobil has been the target of a growing number of state attorneys general investigating whether the company lied about its research about climate change.
Alaska’s new attorney general has jumped into that fight and some lawmakers are saying it’s a flip-flop from the state’s original decision not to investigate the company and that the state shouldn’t waste money getting tangled up in a lawsuit.
While Alaska’s attorney general isn’t yet willing to weigh-in on whether ExxonMobil lied about its climate change research, she is ready to battle the company over its tactics in fighting the investigation.
Some states have subpoenaed financial and research records from the company. Exxon has fought back in court by suing to block those subpoenas.
Former Attorney General Craig Richards signed a memo in June cautioning attorneys general nationwide against aligning themselves with environmentalists and investigating the company.
But Jahna Lindemuth, who took the top lawyer’s job earlier this month signed onto a friend of the court brief arguing against Exxon’s move to block one such investigation.
Exxon is asking a federal court in Texas to block a Massachusetts state subpoena and Lindemuth said this is an issue of federal overreach.
“The issue in that case is whether a large corporation and it could be Exxon, it could be any large corporation can go to a jurisdiction outside of the state where those investigations are happening and try to quash the investigation from a federal court in a different state,” she said.
Lindemuth said states should have the right to protect consumers and investigate fraud cases in state courts, rather than battling them out in federal courts.
But two House Republicans are criticizing her for what they say is a reversal of course for the state.
House Speaker Mike Chenault and Judiciary Committee Chair Gabrielle LeDoux say the state shouldn’t have a role in the lawsuit.
LeDoux, a former attorney, says she has not read the brief Lindemuth’s signed. But, she says she doesn’t think the state should get involved.
“I just don’t think that in our time of limited resources that we should be spending money going to war with our major industry,” LeDoux said.
The attorney general’s office says just because Lindemuth signed the brief, doesn’t mean state will be compelled to appear in court as the lawsuit plays out in other states.
No one from Exxon returned a phone call seeking comment.
Rashah McChesney is a photojournalist turned radio journalist who has been telling stories in Alaska since 2012. Before joining Alaska's Energy Desk, she worked at Kenai's Peninsula Clarion and the Juneau bureau of the Associated Press. She is a graduate of Iowa State University's Greenlee Journalism School and has worked in public television, newspapers and now radio, all in the quest to become the Swiss Army knife of storytellers.
