Connecticut Attorney General William Tong’s lawsuit against ExxonMobil charges the company with lying about climate change. He says decades of research by the company showed that their products were increasing global temperatures, and that they actively tried to hide this fact, and kept pushing people to burn more oil. The suit has been likened to the big tobacco lawsuits filed by states, including Connecticut, which resulted in billions of dollars in settlements. More than a dozen cities and states have filed similar suits against big oil, but Tong says Connecticut’s “Unfair Trade Practices Act” gives it the strongest case.
Additionally on this episode, Tong tells John about a coalition he’s joined to try and overturn a court ruling that blocks states’ ability to regulate price gouging during the pandemic.