Climate Hawks Vote: Obama Should Sue Exxon Under RICO
by Gaius Publius
This is a brief follow-up to the blockbuster Exxon story, about how the company knew as far back as 1977 that burning fossil fuel was a big cause of climate change, that they studied the problem for ten years, then abandoned all that good work and started funding the climate denier campaign — all based on a treasure trove of internal documents.
Our first story, on how much Exxon knew and when they knew it, is here. Our second, on an early call for a RICO investigation into fossil fuel companies — a parallel to the Big Tobacco investigation — is here. Our third, on the op-ed written last May by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, which also calls for a RICO investigation, is here.
The calls for a RICO investigation are starting again, thanks to the Exxon revelations. Here's Climate Hawks Vote, a climate-conscious PAC that scores congressional climate votes and vets candidates, with their own RICO request. It's in the form of a petition, and you, if you like, can sign it.
They write:
Sign Now: Prosecute Exxon For Deliberate Climate Denial
Newly revealed documents show that Exxon’s own scientists were aware of and studying the dangerous impacts of greenhouse gases in the 1970s and 1980s -- until Exxon’s leadership decided to shut down the research and promote climate denial instead, in order to protect the company’s unfathomably large profits.
The United States Department of Justice has the power to prosecute Exxon’s deliberate deception under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act - just as the DOJ did to the tobacco industry for knowingly lying about the dangers of cigarette smoking.
Source: "Exxon: The Road Not Taken," InsideClimate News.
Tell U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch:
Launch a RICO prosecution of Exxon and its fellow fossil-fuel companies for deliberate and malicious climate deception.
Will you sign?
Feel free to join the call. Just click and sign.
(A version of this piece appeared at Down With Tyranny. GP article archive here.)
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