The #ExxonKnew Climate Campaign Keeps Unraveling

Thursday June 30, 2016

An environmental activist-led effort to restrict free speech has suffered a series of damaging setbacks in recent weeks, including the withdrawal of a controversial subpoena requesting climate advocacy documents from scores of non-profit groups. Another state attorney general has put her investigation on hold, and environmental activists are quietly conceding that the campaign has not panned out as they expected.

This week, U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker announced he was pulling his subpoena of ExxonMobil, although Walker’s probe had previously expanded to request communications from dozens of free market groups.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), chairman of the U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, released a statement in response to the news, noting that Walker’s and other states’ investigations “were conceived and driven by environmental groups with an extreme political agenda and no actual regard for the rule of law.”

The activists leading the #ExxonKnew campaign had viewed the Virgin Islands’ subpoena as a major event. The executive director of 350.org said Walker’s investigation created a “huge sense of momentum” because the effort was no longer just “a few isolated inquiries.” Other environmental groups, including InsideClimate News, blogged extensively about Walker’s decision to join the campaign.

 

The momentum now, however, appears to be swinging in the op...

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