Exxon Mobil Not Guilty In Climate Change Lawsuit

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A judge in New York ruled that Exxon Mobil is not guilty of misleading shareholders over the cost of climate change.

The lawsuit between the New York Attorney General and Exxon Mobil is now over after a four-year investigation and subsequent trial. The lawsuit was worth about $1.6 billion and began in October following the investigation. The case was about how Exxon Mobil calculated the potential future cost that climate change could bring. The state of New York alleged that the company misrepresented the costs and kept one set of projections private, while publicly reporting another.

Former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson took the stand in October, stating that the company made an effort to assess the impact climate change could have and reported it to shareholders honestly. Exxon Mobil, for its part, claims that the charges were politically motivated and coordinated by anti-fossil fuel activist groups. “Today’s ruling affirms the position ExxonMobil has held throughout the New York Attorney General’s baseless investigation,” an Exxon spokesperson said in a statement.

When New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched the lawsuit in 2015, the allegations were even more serious. He alleged that Exxon Mobil knew the impact that carbon emissions would have for multiple decades, but chose to cover the information up. Since then, the allegations have shrunk and now Exxon Mobil has been found not guilty.

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