(Reuters) ExxonMobil (XOM.N), filed a lawsuit yesterday against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups, court records show.
The lawsuit filed in the federal court in Beaumont, Texas includes a cause of action sounding in libel or slander, court records show. A copy of the complaint was not immediately available.
In September last year, California filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil over its alleged role in global plastic waste pollution, its attorney general announced.
Speaking at an event during Climate Week in New York City, California Attorney General Bonta said the state sued Exxon after concluding a nearly two-year investigation that he said showed Exxon was deliberately misleading the public about the limitations of recycling.
The investigation mirrors California’s previous probes into the oil industry’s alleged efforts to mislead the public about climate change.
Bonta said his office specifically wants information on Exxon’s promotion of its “advanced recycling” technology, which uses a process called pyrolysis to turn hard-to-recycle plastic into fuel. He had said the technology’s slow progress was a sign of Exxon’s ongoing deception.
“Today’s lawsuit shows the fullest picture to date of ExxonMobil’s decades-long deception, and we are asking the court to hold ExxonMobil fully accountable for its role in actively creating and exacerbating the plastics pollution crisis through its campaign of deception,” Bonta said in a statement.
He said he wants to end the company’s “deceptive practices” and seeks to secure an abatement fund and civil penalties for the harm inflicted by plastics pollution on California.
