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Facing Overwhelming Opposition, Schneiderman Abandons #ExxonKnew Cabal; Now Claims #ExxonKnew Not Really About What Exxon Knew but What Exxon Predicts

Faced with overwhelming opposition from legal experts, mainstream editorial boards across the country, and even the AGs his climate coalition, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is completely changing his tune and attempting to reboot the reason behind his investigation into ExxonMobil.

After months of the #ExxonKnew campaign telling us that these investigations are happening because the company “knew” about climate change in the 1970s and 1980s and then “lied” about it (and as Schneiderman continues to refuse to comply with public records laws) Schneiderman is now telling the New York Times that Exxon’s past statements are not the focus of his investigation at all.  From the Times article:

But in an extensive interview, Mr. Schneiderman said that his investigation was focused less on the distant past than on relatively recent statements by Exxon Mobil related to climate change and what it means for the company’s future.

In other words, the question for Mr. Schneiderman is less what Exxon knew, and more what it predicts.

For example, he said, the investigation is scrutinizing a 2014 report by Exxon Mobil stating that global efforts to address climate change would not mean that it had to leave enormous amounts of oil reserves in the ground as so-called “stranded assets.”

Schneiderman went on to tell the Times, “The older stuff rea...