muffet Ctr for int'l Enviro Law
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ciel.org/news/ciel-statement-api-afpms-motions-withdraw-landmark-childrens-trust-case-api-afpm-demanded-right-defend-court-now-must/">https://www.ciel.org/news/ciel-statement-api-afpms-motions-withdraw-landmark-childrens-trust-case-api-afpm-demanded-right-defend-court-now-must/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">may 26, 2017</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Late <span data-term="goog_1671868276" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Thursday</span> evening, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Fuel & Petrochemicals Manufacturers (AFPM) filed unilateral motions to withdraw as Intervenor Defendants in the landmark <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Juliana v. United States </em>climate case. This follows a similar move to withdraw by intervenor defendant National Association of Manufacturers last Monday.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carroll Muffett, President of the Center for International Environmental Law, issued the following statement.</font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 10px 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; border-left: 5px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“API and AFPM, in their attempt to withdraw as intervenor defendant from <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Juliana v. United States</em>, demonstrate precisely the kind of belligerent disregard for consequences that gives rise to the climate crisis underlying the case. The oil and gas industry groups, along with the National Association of Manufacturers, demanded to be joined as defendants against the youth plaintiffs when they thought they could win easily and keep the case from ever being considered on its merits. They argued that the case could not be resolved without addressing the role of oil and gas in climate change—and in the economy. And after forcing their way into the litigation, API and AFPM deployed their immense legal and financial resources to quashing it. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Unfortunately for the oil and gas industry—and fortunately for the rest of us—its gambit backfired. Now that discovery, legal consequences, and public accountability are all on the table, API and AFPM are looking for an escape route, days after NAM sought the same.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> The fact that the industry groups would </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">so brazenly seek to withdraw without responding to a single discovery</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> request speaks volumes about the potential significance of this case and the oil and gas industry’s reluctance to expose its climate secrets.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The court should not allow these industry actors to<b> cut and run now that they must engage substantively on issues dealing with their own history of complicity in exacerbating the climate crisis. The plaintiffs and the public have a right to see this case brought to its conclusion. API and AFPM demanded the right to defend themselves in court; now they must do so.”</b></font></p></blockquote></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15052022/philippines-fossil-fuels-climate-liability" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15052022/philippines-fossil-fuels-climate-liability</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">icn 5 22 nick k</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">when Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in 2013, it made a direct hit on the hometown of Yeb Saño’s family. Saño,the country’s chief climate negotiator at the time, had to attend the United Nations climate change conference in Poland only days after the storm passed. As he addressed the other delegates, his brother was helping collect the dead.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“My brother remembered exactly how many bodies he picked up with his own hands,” Saño said. “Seventy-three dead bodies exactly.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Haiyan ultimately killed more than 6,000 people in the Philippines and damaged more than 1 million homes, uprooting lives with devastation from which the country still hasn’t recovered. While the storm may have been an act of nature, Saño and others were convinced that humans, ultimately, were responsible.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2015, working with Greenpeace Southeast Asia, Saño sought to hold those people accountable, petitioning the <b>Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights to declare the world’s largest fossil fuel companies “accountable for either impairing, infringing, abusing or violating human rights” because of their contribution to climate change.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">earlier this month, the <a href="https://chr.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/CHRP-NICC-Report-2022.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">commission issued its conclusions</a>. Saño felt vindicated. In a damning and lucidly-written report, the commission found that the world’s largest fossil fuel companies had “engaged in willful obfuscation and obstruction to prevent meaningful climate action.” The companies continue to deny climate science and try to slow a transition away from fossil fuels, the report said, driven “not by ignorance, but by greed.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As the first national human rights body to weigh in on fossil fuel companies’ role in driving climate change, the commission determined that corporations have obligations under human rights law and can be held liable if they neglect them. While the commission has no power to compel companies or governments to act on its findings, legal experts said its report carries broad implications for other cases.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is a milestone for the narrative that climate impacts result in the infringement of human rights,” said Saño, now the executive director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia. “So this report means a lot to Filipinos who confront the adverse effects of the climate crisis. This means a lot for the pursuit of climate justice.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Some of the companies named in the petition, which included Chevron, ExxonMobil and other major producers, sought to have it dismissed</b>, the report said, arguing that the commission had no jurisdiction beyond its borders and that the topic reached outside its traditional realm of political and civil rights. But the commission rejected these appeals, determining that it had a mandate “to test boundaries and create new paths; to be bold and creative, instead of timid and docile.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some experts said the report’s impacts extend beyond the Philippines, increasing the legal risks that fossil fuel companies are facing from a raft of lawsuits around the world. Despite the commission’s lack of enforcement powers, legal experts said its findings provide new strength and evidence for cases that have already been filed and will help people file new challenges in courts and human rights commissions elsewhere.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I think corporations, their boards, their leaders should really start taking this potential liability seriously,” said John Knox, an expert in international and human rights law at Wake Forest Law who testified to the Philippines commission. “This is the harbinger of much more to come.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The commission’s multi-year inquiry and its final report are part of a <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07102021/human-rights-panel-right-to-clean-sustainable-environment/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">growing effort globally</a> to reframe climate change as a threat to human rights. Last year, the United Nations Human Rights Council <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2021/10/human-rights-council-appoints-special-rapporteur-protection-human-rights" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">created a new special rapporteur</a> on human rights in the context of climate change. Aside from better recognizing the impacts of warming on people’s health and well-being—now evident around the world in the form of more extreme weather—advocates of this framing say it provides a solid base for holding governments and corporations accountable if they fail to cut greenhouse gas emissions.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Saño said he has been in touch with colleagues in other parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe about the report’s findings.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Many of them were just waiting for this to be completed,” he said, “and now that we have seen the culmination of the Philippines case it provides a lot of energy into those other possibilities.”</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; clear: both; margin: 48px 0px 24px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.28; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Roadmap to Document Harm </font></span></h2><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Philippines is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world</span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">, an archipelago south of Taiwan that is hit by an average of 20 cyclones each year, according to the commission’s report. The country has also contributed only a tiny portion of the greenhouse gases that humans have pumped into the atmosphere over the last century-and-a-half. The pairing of the Philippines’ vulnerability with its relative lack of culpability makes it a powerful venue for an inquiry into climate change and human rights.</span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 12 public hearings and many hours of testimony, the commission gathered an exhaustive catalog of evidence about the science of climate change and its impacts, and fossil fuel companies’ efforts to sow doubt about that science as they lobbied against government attempts in the United States and other countries to reduce dependence on coal, oil and gas.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The petition by Greenpeace drew on the research of Richard Heede, who leads the Climate Accountability Institute and has <a href="https://climateaccountability.org/publications.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">published studies</a> linking specific levels of greenhouse gas emissions to specific companies, the so-called “carbon majors.” According to Heede’s research, <b>Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, is responsible for more emissions than any other company, with Chevron and Exxon close behind.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental Law, which filed an amicus brief in support of the petitioners,</b> said the new report was perhaps the most comprehensive compendium of all the research that has been published on fossil fuel companies’ role in driving emissions.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But what stood out, Muffett said, is that the report tied those greenhouse gas emissions to immediate threats to specific human rights of Filipinos, including their rights to life, health, food security and sanitation.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Through every one of those rights, the commission pulls out witness testimony that says this was the lived experience of this,” Muffett said. “It is very much a roadmap to show how you document human rights impacts of climate change not only on entire nations, but on individuals and the communities who are being harmed, and that is, I think, extremely important.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One chieftain from the southern Philippines testified that her people have been unable to practice traditional rituals based on seasonal rhythms because erratic weather has disrupted the once-predictable patterns. A rice farmer reported decreased harvests as a result of extreme heat.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One storm survivor told of losing three children, a son-in-law and four grandchildren to Typhoon Sendong in 2011. Veronica Cabe, one of the petitioners, spoke about the destabilizing effects of having her home destroyed by a storm.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We felt displaced, we didn’t have our own space,” she told the commission. “We were forced to live with friends who were willing to share their homes with us. We were separated from each other.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The commission held several hearings in New York and London, and traveled to the Netherlands, too, in a mostly-failed attempt to have some of the 47 fossil fuel companies named in the petition testify or meet with the commissioners.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The report focuses in particular on arguments made by the<b> American Petroleum Institute,</b> the American coal industry and others, beginning in the 1990s, against efforts to limit emissions from fossil fuels, despite those organizations’ knowledge of the dangers of failing to do so.</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the report, the commission cites international human rights laws and standards to say that corporations, in addition to states, have obligations to protect human rights. It points to the continued financing of politicians who oppose climate action as evidence that fossil fuel companies are still working to deflect needed action. And it adds that financial institutions that fund fossil fuel production share in the responsibility and, potentially, liability for continuing to drive emissions higher.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Scott Lauermann, a petroleum institute spokesman, said, “At a time of rising energy costs and geopolitical volatility around the world, it’s more apparent than ever that we must both reduce emissions and ensure access to affordable, reliable energy for U.S. consumers, and that’s exactly what our industry has been focused on for decades” He added, “Any suggestion to the contrary is false.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Creighton Welch, a spokesman for Chevron, said, “Chevron intends to be a leader in efficient and lower-carbon production of traditional energy—in high demand today and for years to come—while growing the lower-carbon businesses that will be a bigger part of the future.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Todd Spitler, an Exxon spokesman, said the company was “developing comprehensive roadmaps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our operated assets around the world and in support of society’s <b>net-zero</b> ambitions,” including investments in low-carbon technologies such as<b> carbon capture and storage,</b> hydrogen and biofuels. He added, “Our commitment to emissions reduction isn’t new; we have supported the Paris Agreement from its inception and made consistent progress on short- and medium-term emissions-reduction plans.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A spokesperson for Saudi Aramco declined to comment.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">The report was the first to be issued by a national human rights commission, and experts said it was only the second official finding to tie fossil fuel companies’ actions and responsibilities directly to the human rights impacts of climate change.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Last year, a <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26052021/dutch-court-gives-shell-nine-years-to-cut-its-carbon-emissions-by-45-percent-from-2019-levels/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">Dutch court ordered Shell to reduce its emissions</a> in a ruling that drew in part on human rights laws.</span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Muffett and others said the report will add to a growing list of rulings and evidence laying the groundwork for holding specific companies liable for their role in fueling warming.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“What the commission is saying is there are adequate bases here for seeking to hold these companies liable,” Muffett said. “And I think that’s really significant because this report provides a pretty clear roadmap to human rights bodies and courts around the world, to then take up cases to do precisely that.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; grid-column: 4 / span 6; word-break: break-word; z-index: 1; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the report, the commission acknowledged that it had no enforcement powers, and instead was providing recommendations to companies and governments for how they could meet their obligations to protect human rights with respect to climate change. For companies, chief among those was halting the exploration of new oil and gas fields and contributing to a climate fund for mitigation and adaptation. The report said states must enact policies to make sure companies take these steps, and to penalize those that don’t.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Saño said he hopes the report would have immediate impacts in the Philippines, where the son of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/10/philippines-presidential-election-result-ferdinand-bongbong-marcos/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">just elected president on Monday</a>. He said successive governments have failed to address injustices in the country, including the concentration of power in a small elite, that exacerbate the impacts of climate change. The new government has an obligation to better protect its citizens from the storms that hit its coastlines every year, Saño said, and “this really paves the way for a lot of change, we hope.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.energyindepth.org/exxonknew-attempts-to-reset-flailing-campaign-witha-billboard/">https://www.energyindepth.org/exxonknew-attempts-to-reset-flailing-campaign-witha-billboard/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> ...EXXONKNEW ATTEMPTS TO RESET FLAILING CAMPAIGN WITH…A BILLBOARD?</font><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">BY </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SPENCER WALRATH</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">OCT. 25, 2017 </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Leave a Comment</span></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Public Citizen and a new project called the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) have launched a new campaign targeting oil and gas companies in the wake of recent hurricanes</b>. The groups have put up two billboards in Houston asking when “climate polluters” will “pay their fair share” and directing people to visit WhoPaysForHarvey.com. But a <b>peek behind the curtain</b> reveals that this campaign is<b> organized by the same key players behind the #ExxonKnew campaign</b> and is just the latest attempt to reset their struggling effort to attack the oil and gas industry.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As a refresher, Public Citizen has been active in the #ExxonKnew campaign for nearly two years. Rob Weissman, Public Citizen’s president, attended a secret closed-door meeting in January 2016 at the offices of the Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF), which has bankrolled the #ExxonKnew campaign. Activists at that meeting included Kert Davies, Matt Pawa, 350.org’s Bill McKibben, and </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) president Carroll Muffett</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, among others.</span></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The purpose of the meeting was “to establish in public’s mind that Exxon is a corrupt institution,” and “to delegitimize them as a political actor.” After a quick break for lunch, the group reconvened to ask:</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Does this group want to establish a rapid response and coordination structure to react to new research, revelations and legal developments as they happen? A higher level of coordination with a war room, joint social media, and coordinated organizing and media pushes?”</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nearly two years later, we’ve seen the degree to which these groups have <b>actively coordinated</b> with each other and their allies.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CCI launched last month as a project of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD). IGSD was founded by Durwood Zaelke, who was the co-founder and president of CIEL from 1989-2003. Richard Wiles is the director of what is now CCI and is also the publisher of a new climate liability website, Climate Liability News (CLN), which launched in July. CLN has paid particularly close attention to developments in the investigations of and lawsuits against ExxonMobil, devoting a unique page on its website to the issue. Kert Davies, who attended the January 2016 RFF meeting, is listed as a member of CLN’s board, alongside Wiles and Alyssa Johl, a former CIEL attorney.</font></span></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Matt Pawa, </b>a trial lawyer who attended the <b>January 2016 RFF meeting</b> and serves on the board of CIEL, recently spoke at a conference with Public Citizen’s Weissman. Pawa has chased big payouts from companies for their contributions to climate change for years and is currently leading a climate change lawsuit filed by San Francisco and Oakland against five oil and gas companies.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following the RFF group’s plan to “establish a rapid response and coordination structure to react to new…developments,” Bill McKibben, a top promoter of the #ExxonKnew campaign, tweeted a photo of one of the Houston billboards as soon as they went up.</font></span></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adrian Shelley, the director of Public Citizen Texas, told the Houston Chronicle that the billboards and website are “just the beginning of a larger national campaign.” WhoPaysForIrma.com has already been registered, though that site has not yet launched.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And while the</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> slick website</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> at WhoPaysForHarvey.com features all of eight sentences blaming oil and gas companies for Hurricane Harvey, it does not link to additional information or resources and </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">offers no way to help the victims of Harvey and no solutions to address climate change.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry pledged over $32.3 million to Harvey relief efforts. [ASKED FOR BILLIONS$ TO FORTIFY SHIP CHANNEL?]It remains to be seen how this new campaign’s billboards and barebones website will help address climate change.</span></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is clear is that these various efforts to attempt to bring climate litigation against oil and gas companies are being perpetrated by the same handful of activists who have been pursuing these companies for years.<b> The goal isn’t to win the cases; it’s to generate publicity </b>– a goal shared by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman with his investigation of ExxonMobil.</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Activists are trying to create a public narrative that oil and gas companies deserve all of the blame for climate change, thereby shifting the blame from the individuals who rely on fossil fuels (including these activists) to the companies providing fossil fuels. The goal, as laid out in their memo nearly two years ago, is to “delegitimize them” and convince the public that oil and gas companies are corrupt. Or, as that memo’s author put it:</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TAGS: 350.org, Alyssa Johl, Bill McKibben, Carroll Muffett, CCI, Center for Climate Integrity,</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Center for International Environmental Law, CIEL</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, Climate Litigation News, CLN, Durwood Zaelke, Eric Schneiderman, Exxon, ExxonKnew, ExxonMobil, Harvey, IGSD, Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, Irma, Johl, Kenny Bruno, Kert Davies, Matt Pawa, Matthew Pawa, McKibben, Pawa, Public Citizen, RFF, Richard Wiles, Rob Weissman, Rockefeller Family Fund, Schneiderman, Weissman, Wiles, Zaelke</span></font></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref guk electric car</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div><b>Oil company records from 1960s reveal patents to reduce CO2 emissions in cars</b></div><div>ExxonMobil and others pursued research into technologies, yet blocked government efforts to fight climate change for more than 50 years, findings show</div><div>
</div><div>Exxon Mobil</div><div>The patent records were among a new trove of documents published by the Center for International Environmental Law, and deepen the public relations challenge for Exxon. </div><div>
</div><div>Suzanne Goldenberg</div><div>@suzyji</div><div>Fri 20<b> May 2016 </b></div><div>
</div><div>The forerunners of ExxonMobil patented technologies for electric cars and low emissions vehicles as early as 1963 – even as the oil industry lobby tried to squash government funding for such research, according to a trove of newly discovered records.</div><div>
</div><div>Patent records reveal oil companies actively pursued research into technologies to cut carbon dioxide emissions that cause climate change from the 1960s – including early versions of the batteries now deployed to power electric cars such as the Tesla.</div><div>
</div><div>Scientists for the companies patented technologies to strip carbon dioxide out of exhaust pipes, and improve engine efficiency, as well as fuel cells. They also conducted research into countering the rise in carbon dioxide emissions – including manipulating the weather.</div><div>
</div><div>Esso, one of the precursors of ExxonMobil, obtained at least three fuel cell patents in the 1960s and another for a low-polluting vehicle in 1970, according to the records. Other oil companies such as Phillips and Shell also patented technologies for more efficient uses of fuel.</div><div>
</div><div><b>However, the American Petroleum Institute, the main oil lobby, opposed government funding of research into electric cars and low emissions vehicles, telling Congress in 1967: “We take exception to the basic assumption that clean air can be achieved only by finding an alternative to the internal combustion engine.</b>”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">This 1970 patent, assigned to Esso (now ExxonMobil), is a design for a low-polluting engine system.]</span></div><div>
</div><div>And ExxonMobil funded a disinformation campaigned aimed at discrediting scientists and blocking government efforts to fight climate change for more than 50 years, before </div><div>
</div><div>The patent records were among a new trove of documents published on Thursday by the Center for International Environmental Law, and deepen the legal and public relations challenge for Exxon.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">“What we saw was an array of patent technologies that demonstrated that these companies had the technologies they needed and could have commercialised to help address the problem of C02 pollution,” said</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Carroll Muffett, president of the Ciel. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">“They then turned to Congress and said you don’t need to invest in electrical vehicle research because the research is ongoing and it’s robust.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>The findings echo those in the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?, which explored the deliberate destruction of GM’s first electric vehicles.</b></div><div>
</div><div><b>Alan Jeffers, an Exxon spokesman</b>, insisted he could not comment directly on the documents as he was unable to access the Center for International Environmental law website on which they were published on Thursday morning.</div><div>
</div><div>In an emailed statement, Jeffers said: “The Guardian gave us only a few hours to comment on documents from four decades ago.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>Jeffers went on: “This further illustrates the Guardian’s well-established bias on climate change issues which has been demonstrated previously through its keep it in the ground campaign.”</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He said the company believed the risks of climate change were real, was researching lower emission technologies, and engaged in “constructive dialogue” with policy makers about energy and climate change.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Researchers discovered more than 20 such patents filed by oil companies from as early as the 1940s for technologies that could help in the development of electric cars.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">However, <b>Ron Dunlop, president of Sun Oil and API chairman, told a joint hearing of the commerce committee in 1967 that government funding of research into electric cars would be misplaced </b>– because the oil companies were so advanced in their research of cleaner cars. “We in the petroleum industry are convinced that by the time a practical electric car can be mass produced and marketed, it will not enjoy any meaningful advantage from an air pollution standpoint,” he told Congress. “Emissions from internal-combustion engines will have long since been controlled.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>Muffett said the findings were the result of three years of research and were not exhaustive.[npi]</div><div>
</div><div>“The question is what did they do to try to commercialise these technologies, knowing what they did about climate change,” he went on.</div><div>
</div><div><b>The revelations, the second set of documents released by <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Muffett’</span>s organisation, reinforce charges by campaigners that Exxon was well aware that the burning of fossil fuels was a main driver of climate change – despite its public posture of doubt.</b></div><div>
</div><div>In addition to the technologies with potential for electric cars, Exxon and other oil companies were actively researching methods to cut emissions of carbon dioxide – the main greenhouse gas.</div><div>
</div><div><b>In another historic document that surfaced last month, a Canadian subsidiary of Exxon admitted the company had the technology to cut carbon emissions in half. However, the corporate memo dating from 1977 said it would be prohibitively expensive – doubling the cost of electricity generation, according to the documents obtained by Desmog blog.</b></div><div>
</div><div>New York and 17 other attorneys general, including DC and the US Virgin Islands, are investigating whether the oil company lied to investors and the public about the threat of climate change.</div><div>
</div><div>Campaigners plan to further turn up the heat on the company next week when Exxon holds its<b> annual shareholder meeting in Dallas.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Campaigners have argued for more than a decade that Exxon bankrolled a network of front groups and conservative think tanks aimed at discrediting well-established science – confusing the public and delaying governments efforts to cut the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for warming.</div><div>
</div><div>Those efforts to put Exxon on the spot gathered pace after Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times reported that the company’s own scientists knew as early as the 1970s that greenhouse gases caused climate change.</div><div>
</div><div>Tell the truth, ExxonMobil: a low-carbon future is affordable – and necessary</div><div>Read more]</div><div>
</div><div>The attorney general of the US Virgin Islands has subpoenaed Exxon to turn over email, documents and statements over the last decades.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Exxon has dismissed the investigations as politically motivated.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">However, the company has reversed its opposition to fuel cell technology. Earlier this month, the company announced it had been conducting a joint research effort on fuel cell power plants with FuelCell.[results?]</span></div><div>
</div><div>The initiative, which got underway in 2011, aims to route the carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning power plants into fuel cells, producing low emissions electricity. The company has estimated it can cut 90% of carbon dioxide emissions.</div><div>
</div><div>“At ExxonMobil, we share the view that the risks of climate change are serious and warrant thoughtful action,” Rex Tillerson, Exxon’s chief executive, told the US Energy Association after receiving its annual award.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Exxon initially cooperated with New York,</b> surrendering more than two million pages of records. But the company balked at a documents request from Healey and took its argument to Kinkeade, who allowed Exxon to question attorneys general and climate activists in its search for evidence of a conspiracy.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Kinkeade, a Republican appointed by President George W. Bush, sent the case to New York, he laid out Exxon's allegations in detail, presumably a road map for his successor to follow. But Caproni, appointed by President Barack Obama, said at a hearing, "I have a different view of this case than Judge Kinkeade." When one of Exxon's lawyers sought a discovery order like the one Kinkeade granted to allow the company to try to prove that the attorneys general were improperly colluding, Caproni shut him down. "Gimme a break," she said. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://www.ciel.org/about-us/ciel-staff/carroll-muffett-president-and-ceo/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Carroll Muffett</a>, president and chief executive of the nonprofit <b>Center for International Environmental Law,</b> was one of those subpoenaed by Exxon. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"I knew from the very beginning that Exxon would eventually come after us hard and it would be a dirty fight," Muffett said. "They are fabricating conspiracy theories to deflect attention from the truth.</span>"</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
To defend itself, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3519886-ExxonMobil-Subpoena-to-Muffett.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Exxon argued in the subpoena</a> that it needed to know whether Muffett's and other non-governmental organizations influenced the attorneys general's decisions to open investigations.The Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Rockefeller Family Fund, philanthropic organizations that promote environmental causes among their numerous programs, also were <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07122016/exxonmobil-climate-change-investigation-350-bill-mckibben-rex-tillerson-lamar-smith-science" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">the targets of Exxon subpoenas</a>. Both organizations are among donors that support ICN.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That legal strategy prompted Sarah Labowitz, a New York University scholar who served nearly three years on <a href="http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/community/corporate-citizenship-report/about-this-report" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Exxon's External Citizenship Advisory Panel</a>, to resign.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Labowitz, who until recently was co-director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at the NYU Stern School of Business, said she had enough when the company went after Muffett and others unrelated to the two state investigations.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I am disappointed that instead of examining its own record and seeking to restore a respected place for itself in the public debate, Exxon has chosen to turn up the temperature on civil society groups," <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3521602-Labowitz-ECAP-Feb-6-2017.html" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Labowitz wrote in her resignation letter</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 117.438px; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watching the New York and Massachusetts investigations being sucked into a legal quagmire are the other attorneys general who were part of the coalition.</font></p></div>