A district appeals court refused to prevent one of the attorneys general (AG) involved in a crusade against Exxon Mobil from having to explain her investigation to a Texas court.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals did not address over the weekend whether Massachusetts AG Maura Healey must travel to Texas for a deposition into the Democrat’s inquisition of the oil company’s climate research.
Healey said would not comply with U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade’s order to hash out specifics about her investigation into whether the oil company knowingly shelved research showing the effects fossil fuels have on the climate.
“Legally, we believe we’re on strong legal ground, not only with respect to the questions that we’ve asked but also with respect to the position that this court has no jurisdiction over us — meaning, in simple terms, what the court has done is inappropriate,” Healey told reporters Monday.
Healey went on to say that she has “no plans” to comply with the court order. “We’ll take it up on appeal,” she added.
Kinkeade accused Healey in October of acting in “bad faith” when she issued a subpoena against the oil company for 30 years’ worth of documents related to the company’s information about climate change.
Exxon told reporters Friday that because of “the compelling record of prosecutorial overreach, she cannot show that the district court clearly and indisputably erred by allowing ExxonMobil to test Healey’s claims of good faith in a deposition.”
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is also investigating the oil company, is also slated to appear in front of Kinkeade. No date has been set for the New York Democrat’s deposition.
The attorneys general’s investigation is partially the result of a September investigation of Exxon conducted by InsideClimate News. The group’s reports found the oil company had allegedly played fast-and-loose with decades of climate research.
InsideClimate News also alleges that Amoco, Phillips, Texaco, Shell, and others joined Exxon in misleading the public about the supposed effects global warming on sea levels.
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