Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell announced Tuesday that his office is collaborating with 20 other attorneys general in an effort to combat climate change.
Sorrell made the announcement at an hourlong news conference in New York where he was joined by five other attorneys general and former Vice President Al Gore.
The attorneys general held a meeting after the announcement, during which they sought to share information that might lead to legal action, Sorrell said.
Sorrell convened the event along with the attorney general of New York, who has begun an investigation into whether Exxon Mobil misled the public about climate change risks related to fossil fuel consumption.
Sorrell said his office “has not thus far” begun investigations into any fossil fuel companies, but said he brought to the event the chiefs of both the consumer protection and environmental divisions to collaborate with the other states’ attorneys general who were at Tuesday’s event.
“We’ll take what we’ve learned today and go back to Vermont and determine what we’re going to do that would be the best use of our resources,” Sorrell said after the news conference.
Sorrell would not say whether he believes fossil fuel companies have broken Vermont laws.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he’s currently investigating the possibility that companies including Exxon Mobil may have violated state consumer protection laws, specifically those pertaining to fraud. Schneiderman said the 20 collaborating states all have different statutes on the books that might allow them to pursue charges of their own.
Schneiderman said that fossil fuel companies learned from their own scientists that climate change is caused by an excess of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Those companies used that information to direct their activities — planning to drill in the Arctic once polar ice had receded, for example — while simultaneously telling the public there were “no competent models to project climate patterns,” Schneiderman said.
Many of the same companies spent millions in an effort to convince members of the public that renewable energy does not provide a viable alternative to fossil fuels, Schneiderman said.
These actions meet the definition of fraud, Gore said, and he likened the collaboration by the attorneys general to that undertaken against tobacco companies. State attorneys general were instrumental in successful cases brought against tobacco companies for deceiving the public about risks associated with tobacco use, he said.
The states collaborating with Vermont and New York intend to take an “all levers approach,” Schneiderman said. Attorneys general in each state would pursue whatever action their own statutes might allow, he said.
Companies that have committed fraud will be punished “to the maximum extent of the law,” Schneiderman said.
Financial damages are likely to constitute part but not all of that punishment, he said.
The other states are Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, California, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington, in addition to Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands.
Some Vermont environmental advocates said the investigation is particularly important, given the absence of federal action.
“This is good because at the federal level, there continue to be obstructions to addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Conservation Law Foundation senior attorney Sandra Levine said. “In the absence of action at the federal level, it’s terrific that states are stepping up and playing a larger role.”
Others warned that Sorrell is traveling down “a dangerous road.”
Republican administrations might pursue similar action against climate scientists, Ethan Allen Institute President Rob Roper said.
Roper offered the Vermont Public Interest Research Group as an example.
The organization advocates for clean energy as a way to stave off destruction of the state’s maple and ski industries, Roper said, and yet, “I haven’t seen any science anywhere (suggesting) there’s anything we could do to protect the maple industry or the ski industry. Is that fraud?”
Paul Burns, director of VPIRG, said his organization’s stance is in line with most scientists that study the subject.
“At this point, it’s pretty clear that people who think climate change is a fraud are either willfully ignorant or they’re being paid by the fossil fuel industry,” Burns said. “VPIRG stands with 97 percent of the world’s climate experts in the knowledge that global warming is real, and like most Vermonters, we think we think we all have a responsibility to do something about it.”
Gov. Peter Shumlin has called upon State Treasurer Beth Pearce to divest the state’s retirement fund of Exxon Mobil assets for reasons substantially similar to Schneiderman’s allegations against the company.
Last week, the Rockefeller family — descendants of the founder of Standard Oil, the company whose spinoffs include Exxon Mobil — divested their own trust of Exxon Mobil stocks because of the company’s misleading information. The family issued a statement that described Exxon Mobil as “morally reprehensible” and said the company misled the public about climate change that its own scientists took advantage of.
Exxon Mobil representatives did not respond to a request for comment.