On the heels of a major victory for California communities that can now advance their lawsuits to hold Exxon and other Big Oil companies accountable for their share of the billions of dollars in climate change costs, a Texas appeals court last week handed the world’s largest oil company yet another defeat in its efforts to escape accountability.
Exxon’s request, that it be allowed to leaf through documents from officials of the California cities and counties taking the company to court, was reviewed by a court on its home turf in Texas, where the company says its constitutional rights were violated.
Three justices of the Second Appellate District of Texas concluded that despite their personal inclinations, the law was clear and Texas courts do not have jurisdiction over the California communities: "We confess to an impulse to safeguard an industry that is vital to Texas's economic well-being … [but] our reading of the law simply does not permit us to agree with Exxon’s contention.”
The justices overturned a lower court’s decision that would have given Exxon the green light to demand records and files from municipalities it claims have targeted them in a “conspiracy” to scapegoat them for climate change. The only real conspiracy, of course, is found in the hundreds of internal industry documents that clearly demonstrate a multi-billion dollar campaign to deceive the public on climate change — the basis upon which communities across the country have sued the industry to recover immense climate damages.
This defeat of Exxon’s latest ploy to stall, intimidate and harass those who seek to bring it to justice is not the first, and it certainly won’t be the last. In 2016, the company attempted to depose Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey after she launched an investigation into whether the company had defrauded consumers and investors; that deposition was nixed by a Texas federal judge after Healey filed an appeal.
It is especially telling that even judges who are politically aligned with Big Oil can be a bulwark against the industry’s overreach. The message is clear: not even Exxon is above the law — and soon, it will have to reckon with the cost of its misdeeds.
Image by Louis Vest on Flickr