34
C E N T E R F O R I N T E R N AT I O N A L E N V I R O N M E N TA L L AW
151 See MULVEY & SHULMAN, supra note 132, at
19.
152 See Greening Earth Society, DESMOG BLOG,
https://www.desmogblog.com/greening-earthsociety (last visited Nov. 3, 2017); for a useful
overview of various Western Fuels climate
denial campaigns active in the 1990s and into
the 2000s, see Center for Environmental
Advocacy and Research, Western Fuels
Association’s Astroturf Empire Coal industry
Campaign Multiplies Efforts to Re-Spin Global
Warming, (Nov. 10, 1998), available at https://
web.archive.org/web/20020629002337/http://
clearproject.org/reports_westernfuels.html.
153 See MULVEY & SHULMAN, supra note 132, at
25.
154 See Suzanne Goldenberg & Helena Bengtsson,
Biggest US Coal Company Funded Dozens of
Groups Questioning Climate Change, THE
GUARDIAN (Jun. 13, 2016, 6:00 AM), https://
www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/
jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climatechange-denial-funding; Nick Surgey,
Bankruptcy Filing Shows Arch Coal Funding for
Climate Denial Legal Group, PRWATCH (Feb.
24, 2016, 8:33 AM), http://www.prwatch.org/
news/2016/02/13049/bankruptcy-documentsindicate-arch-coal-funding-climate-deniallegal-group; Coal Companies’ Secret Funding of
Climate Science Denial Exposed, UNION OF
CONCERNED SCIENTISTS (Apr. 2016), http://
www.ucsusa.org/publications/gotscience/2016/got-science-april-2016#.
WJpclX8plVg.
155 MULVEY & SHULMAN, supra note 132, at 1618.
156 ExxonMobil, Energy and Climate (2014),
available at http://cdn.exxonmobil.com/~/
media/global/files/energy-and-environment/
report---energy-and-climate.pdf.
157 Id. (emphasis added).
158 See Carrington & Mommers, supra note 125.
159 See Dana Nuccitelli, New Studies Show Rex
Tillerson is Wrong About Climate Risks, THE
GUARDIAN (Jan. 16, 2017), https://www.
theguardian.com/environment/climateconsensus-97-per-cent/2017/jan/16/newstudies-show-rex-tillerson-is-wrong-aboutclimate-risks.
160 See Geoffrey Supran & Naomi Oreskes,
Assessing ExxonMobil’s Climate Change
Communications (1977-2014), ENVTL. RES.
LETTERS, Aug. 23, 2017, available at http://
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/
aa815f
161 Id.
162 Id.
163 Id. See also Geoffrey Supran & Naomi Oreskes,
What Exxon Mobil Didn’t Say About Climate
Change, N.Y. TIMES (Aug. 22, 2017), available
at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/
opinion/exxon-climate-change-.html?_r=0.
164 See Justin Gillis & Clifford Krauss, Exxon
Mobil Investigated for Possible Climate Change
Lies by New York Attorney General, N.Y. TIMES
(Nov. 5, 2015), available at https://www.
nytimes.com/2015/11/06/science/exxonmobil-under-investigation-in-new-york-overclimate-statements.html.
165 See Diane Cardwell & John Schwartz, Exxon
Emissions Costs Accounting ‘May Be a Sham,’
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
New York State Says, N.Y. TIMES (June 2,
2017), available at https://www.nytimes.
com/2017/06/02/business/energyenvironment/exxon-mobil-climate-changelawsuit.html.
See David Hasemyer, Exxon May Have Erased 7
Years of Tillerson’s ‘Wayne Tracker’ Emails,
Witness Says, INSIDECLIMATE NEWS (June 8,
2017), https://insideclimatenews.org/
news/08062017/exxon-climate-fraud-rextillerson-erased-wayne-tracker-emails-witness.
See id.
See id.
See Examination of Michelle Hirshman at
141-42, Matter of the Investigation of Exxon
Mobil Corporation (N.Y. Sup. Ct. June 2,
2017) (No. 451962/2016) (noting that the
Wayne Tracker email address was not subject to
a preservation hold), available at http://www.
documentcloud.org/documents/3860668Document-185-Transcript-of-Deposition-ofExxon.html. See also Carroll Muffett, Why the
Exxon Investigation is More Urgent and More
Justified than Ever, ALTERNET (July 19, 2017,
11:30 PM), https://www.alternet.org/
environment/why-exxon-investigation-moreurgent-and-more-justified-ever.
See Examination of Connie Feinstein at 71,
Matter of the Investigation of Exxon Mobil
Corporation (N.Y. Sup. Ct. June 2, 2017) (No.
451962/2016), available at https://www.
documentcloud.org/documents/3860303Document-194-Transcript-of-Exxon-TechieConnie.html.
See Memorandum of Law in Opposition to
Exxon’s Motion to Quash and in Support of
the Office of the Attorney General’s CrossMotion to Compel at 12, n. 12, New York v.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (N.Y. Sup. Ct. June
2, 2017) (451962/2016).
See Examination of Michelle Hirshman, supra
note 169, at 37.
Id. at 135-36.
Production of Pure Carbon Dioxide, U.S.
Patent No. 2,665,971 (filed May 12, 1949).
Method for Recovering a Purified Component
from a Gas, U.S. Patent No. 3,228,874 (filed
Aug 22, 1961).
Process for the Removal of Acidic Gases from a
Gas Mixture, U.S. Patent No. 3,760,564 (filed
Mar. 20, 1972).
Petroleum Recovery with Inert Gases, U.S.
Patent No. 3,193,006 (filed Nov. 3, 1961).
Recovery of Shale Oil, U.S. Patent No.
3,516,495 (filed Nov. 29, 1967).
See DeMelle & Grandia, supra note 117.
See Carbon Capture and Storage a Costly, Risky
Distraction, GREENPEACE (July 1, 2016), http://
www.greenpeace.org/international/en/
campaigns/climate-change/Solutions/Rejectfalse-solutions/Reject-carbon-capture--storage/
(noting that carbon capture and storage
technology is expensive, has led to unnatural
earthquakes, and has other technical
implementation problems which have led to
Norway, the United States, the European
Union, and the United Kingdom, among
others, to cancel high-profile carbon capture
and storage projects).
See id. (noting examples in Salah, Algeria, the
Norwegian North Sea, and Mississippi, United
States, where carbon capture and storage
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
attempts have led to cracks in rock formations,
indicating likely future leakage, or actual
leakage events).
Direct Production of Electrical Energy from
Liquid Fuels, U.S. Patent No. 3,113,049 (filed
Jan. 3, 1961); Fuel Cell and Fuel Cell
Electrodes, U.S. Patent No. 3,116,169 (filed
Mar. 14, 1960); Fuel Cell Catalysts, U.S.
Patent No. 3,239,382 (filed Sept. 27, 1960);
Fuel Cell With Pr-Au Anode and MolybdateContaining Electrolyte, U.S. Patent No.
3,443,998 (filed Jul. 5, 1963); Low-Polluting
Engine and Drive System, U.S. Patent No.
3,513,929 (filed Aug. 25, 1967).
See generally S.G. Meibuhr, Review of United
States Fuel-Cell Patents Issued During 1963 and
1964, 11(9) ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA 1325
(1966), available at http://www.sciencedirect.
com/science/article/pii/0013468666870317.
See Electric Vehicles and Other Alternatives to the
Internal Combustion Engine: Hearing on S. 451
and S. 453 Before the S. Comm. on Commerce
and the S. Subcomm. on Air and Water Pollution
of the S. Comm. on Pub. Works, 90th Cong.
316-19 (1967) (statement of Robert Dunlop,
Chairman, Board of Directors, American
Petroleum Institute).
See, e.g., High Efficiency Selenium
Heterojunction Solar Cells, U.S. Patent No.
4,064,522 (filed Feb. 4, 1976); Solar Cell
Module, U.S. Patent No. 4,235,643 (filed June
30, 1978); Solar Cell Assembly and fabrication
of Solar Cell Panels Utilizing Same, U.S. Patent
No. 4,287,382 (filed May 9, 1980); Indium
Oxide/N-Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells,
U.S. Patent No. 4,366,335 (filed Apr. 30,
1981); Thin Film Solar Cell Substrate, U.S.
Patent No. 4,510,344 (filed Dec. 19, 1983).
See Tracy Emblem, How Big Oil had Controlled
the Solar Industry, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
(Apr. 17, 2011), http://www.
sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-how-big-oilhad-controlled-the-solar-industry-2011apr17story.html.
For an extensive review of the oil industry’s role
in the solar industry during this period,
including a discussion of how the industry
captured vital subsidies, see Geoffrey Jones &
Loubna Bouamane, “Power from Sunshine”: A
Business History of Solar Energy 21-38 (Harvard
Bus. Sch., Working Paper No. 12-105, 2012),
available at http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/
Publication%20Files/12-105.pdf.
See generally id.; Emblem, supra note 186.
See, e.g., GERALD MARKOWITZ AND DAVID
ROSNER, DECEIT AND DENIAL: THE DEADLY
POLITICS OF INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION (Univ. of
California Press, 2002); James Lincoln Kitman,
The Secret History of Lead, The Nation (March
2, 2000) https://www.thenation.com/article/
secret-history-lead/; see also discussion infra.
See, e.g., CHIP JACOBS, WILLIAM J. KELLY,
SMOGTOWN: THE LUNG-BURNING HISTORY OF
POLLUTION IN LOS ANGELES (2008); Devra
Davis, When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of
Environmental Deception and the Battle
Against Pollution (2003) (passim); JAMES E.
KRIER, POLLUTION AND POLICY: A CASE ESSAY
ON CALIFORNIA AND FEDERAL EXPERIENCE
WITH MOTOR VEHICLE AIR POLLUTION, 19401975 (1977); and discussion supra notes 49-69
and accompanying text.
Jennifer Beth Sass, Barry Castleman, and David
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