For Exxon and the Oil Sands, Trial May Kickstart a Great Reckoning | The Tyee
this week as 2.5 weeks of testimony, cross-examination and legal
arguments began to wind down; closing arguments were heard on Thursday. And though the lawsuit focuses specifically
on whether Exxon properly disclosed the massive financial risks it
could face because of climate change, it was impossible to ignore the
larger context for this unprecedented trial of an oil major.
Here was a company that had for years sowed
doubt about climate change; poured tens of billions of dollars into
Alberta’s climate-destroying oil sands; and threw its full lobbying
weight into dismantling the Barack Obama administration’s effort to
limit the flow of oil sands into the U.S., as The Tyee documented in a 15-part series reported from Washington, DC.
Now, in Room 232 of the New York State
Supreme Court, before a draped American flag and “In God We Trust”
spelled on the courtroom wall, one of the world’s largest and most
powerful companies was being sued by the state’s Attorney General for
allegedly misleading investors about the ticking financial time bomb of
its high-carbon investments — many of which are concentrated in northern
Alberta.