From the 1950s onward, oil companies developed and patented numerous technologies that might have been deployed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including fuel cells and advanced batteries, low emission vehicle technologies, and technologies for removing carbon dioxide from industrial waste streams. In 1980, an ExxonMobil subsidiary acknowledged the potential value of the company’s patents in addressing climate risks, but noted that doing so would raise the costs of the company’s patents unacceptably. From the 1980s forward, therefore, one or more oil companies had the technical capacity and the opportunity to reduce climate risks associated with greenhouse gas emissions, but chose not to do so for commercial reasons. Prior Petroleum Industry Pollution Events Reveal a Pattern of Denial and Obfuscation The pattern described above – discovery, investigation, concealment, obfuscation – does not apply only to the petroleum industry’s engagement with climate science. In fact, it is only the most recent example of the same formula this industry has used when it discovers a potential health or environmental problem. Meeting minutes and industry documents from the Tobacco Archives show that in November 1953, executives from several major cigarette companies met with a group of scientists from New York University (NYU).105 During the meeting, Dr. C.P. Rhoads, one of the lead scientists with the NYU group, proposed a research project that had been inspired by work that group had done earlier for the petroleum industry.106 Dr. Rhoads explained that the chemical industry had suffered a reputational disaster when a chemical was discovered to cause bladder cancer.107 He noted that “[i]t took such a long time to correct this condition and to live it down that the petroleum industry took steps to forestall a similar occurrence in their industry.”108 At the time, there was growing concern over the discovery of a mouse carcinogen present in cigarettes.109 The NYU group could identify the carcinogen so the industry could neutralize or remove it.110 When asked whether a mouse skin carcinogen is known to cause cancer in human lungs, Dr. Rhoads indicated that “he did not expect any direct relationship between mouse carcinogens and human carcinogens would be established during his lifetime, that he didn’t know whether there was any connection or not, and no one else knows … . Dr. Rhoads said that, nevertheless, the elimination or neutralization of this specific 105 See notes from New York University meeting, 10:30 A.M., November 5, 1953 (Nov. 5, 1953) (on file with University of California, San Francisco), available at https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/#id=yqpy0140; Chronology of Events with Respect to Mr. Hamner and The American Tobacco Company Research Department (internal document for American Tobacco Company) (on file with university of California, San Francisco), available at https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/ykgy0050; Notes on Trip to NYU – Bellevue Medical Center Institute of Industrial Medicine (Jan. 28, 1953) (on file with University of California, San Francisco), available at https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/krbp0140. 106 See Notes from New York University meeting, 10:30 A.M., November 5, 1953 (Nov. 5, 1953) (on file with University of California, San Francisco), available at https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/#id=yqpy0140. 107 Id. 108 Id. 109 Id. 110 Id. 19