Exxon has filed a suit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a group of environmental organizations alleging defamation and disparagement of the company’s recycling work.
“With apparently no appreciation for the irony of their claim, Mr. Bonta and his cohorts are now engaging in reverse greenwashing,” the company said in the suit, filed in Texas, as quoted by Bloomberg. “While posing under the banner of environmentalism, they do damage to genuine recycling programs and to meaningful innovation.”
The supermajor also alleged business interests were at play, noting in its lawsuit that one of the entities named as the guilty party, a law firm called Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, had ties to an Australian non-governmental organization funded by mining millionaire Andrew Forrest, who is a competitor of Exxon in low-carbon tech, Reuters reported.
Exxon’s move comes in response to a lawsuit filed by California’s Bonta against the company last year, alleging that the company misled the public into believing recycling was a workable solution to plastic waste while in fact the approach had limitations.
“Exxon Mobil knew that 95% of the plastic in the blue bin was going to be incinerated, go into the environment or go into a landfill,” the California Attorney General told NBC at the time. “They knew and they lied,” he said, adding that the rate of plastics recycling in the United States had peaked at 9%.
Exxon was quick to respond to the accusations, saying “For decades, California officials have known their recycling system isn’t effective. They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem.”
The latest lawsuit adds to a growing body of evidence that Big Oil is ready to fight back after years of pressure from anti-oil authorities and scores of lawsuits originating with climate change activist groups
Source: Oilprice.com
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