Energy Policy Transparency Group Aims to Unseal Documents in Exxon Climate Change Case
The Hagens Berman lawyer is arguing that his communications with the Attorney General's Office are being targeted as part of a "national campaign against anyone seeking to hold Exxon liable for climate change."
January 28, 2020 at 04:28 PM
3 minute read
ExxonMobil world headquarters in Irving, Texas. (Photo: Katherine Welles/Shutterstock.com)
An energy policy transparency group—which its foes have linked to pro-coal interests—has filed a motion to intervene in the wake of a Manhattan trial that ended in a decisive verdict for Exxon Mobil, aiming to secure the release of documents associated with the New York Attorney General's Office action against the company over climate change.
But Boston attorney Matthew Pawa has asked to file an amicus brief to oppose the policy group's demand.
Pawa, of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, is arguing that his communications with the Attorney General's Office are being targeted as part of a "national campaign against anyone seeking to hold Exxon liable for climate change."
Then-New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood sued Exxon in October 2018, arguing that the company deceived its investors about the effects of climate change on its business and value.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager ruled in December that the Attorney General's Office failed to prove Exxon engaged in consistent fraud or violated New York's powerful Martin Act. The office did not appeal the decision, and the deadline for an appeal has passed.
Exxon's lead attorney, Theodore Wells of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, argued at trial that the Attorney General's Office was pursuing a political agenda on behalf of climate activists. Wells presented an agenda from a 2015 meeting at the Rockefeller Family Fund, saying that activists set out to influence state attorneys general and successfully targeted New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Months before the fall 2019 trial, Wells had accused the Attorney General's Office of "collusion with special interests to single out Irving, Texas-based ExxonMobil because of disagreements about climate policy," according to court filings.
Ostrager then allowed the Attorney General's Office to file emails between its lawyers and an outside attorney under seal. Exxon argued that the emails showed the outside lawyer's role in instigating the suit against the company, according to court filings.
The outside attorney was Pawa, according to the proposed amicus brief filed by Pawa's attorney, Wesley Kelman of Hagens Berman. Kelman argued that the Washington state nonprofit Energy Policy Advocates is seeking the release of Pawa's emails in part because, he said, the group has ties to pro-coal organizations.
According to its website, Energy Policy Advocates does not take policy positions but uses freedom of information laws to "bring transparency to the realm of energy and environmental policy."
On Tuesday, lawyers for the Energy Policy Advocates asked Ostrager for more time to respond to Pawa's filing.
Francis Menton, principal of the Francis Menton Law Firm in New York, who represents the energy nonprofit, said his client plans to file a reply to Pawa. He said the documents should be made public.
Paul Weiss did not respond to requests for comment, while Kelman and the New York Attorney General's Office declined to comment.
Read more:
Manhattan Judge Clears Exxon in NY AG's Lawsuit Over Accounting for Climate Change Risks
NY AG's Office Accuses Exxon Mobil of Trying to Discourage Witnesses, Delay Trial
Tillerson Expected to Testify as Trial Begins in NY AG's Lawsuit Against Exxon
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