What We Know About ExxonMobil's Internal Climate Files

Newly disclosed internal ExxonMobil documents, released this year without public notice as part of a 2019 Massachusetts lawsuit, add new detail to a long paper trail on what the company knew about climate change and when, according to a report by Inside Climate News published on Ars Technica. The filings include a 1988 memo and more recent statements from Exxon scientists questioning the company's public claims about biofuels and carbon capture.

What does the 1988 memo say?

The memo, written by Frank Sprow of Exxon's corporate research department weeks before the United Nations established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned colleagues that "if a worldwide consensus emerges that action is needed to mitigate against Greenhouse gas effects, substantial negative impacts on Exxon could occur," according to the filing. Part of the memo was quoted in a 2023 Wall Street Journal article, but it had not previously been published in full, Inside Climate News reports. The memo followed NASA climatologist James Hansen's June 1988 congressional testimony linking fossil fuel emissions to global warming.

What do the newer documents add?

Beyond the Sprow memo, the Massachusetts case filings include statements from Exxon scientists challenging the company's own public claims about climate solutions, including its work on biofuels and carbon capture and storage, according to the report. Those passages are being reported for the first time. Experts told Inside Climate News the documents align with hundreds of previously disclosed Exxon files uncovered through past reporting and litigation, but add new detail on internal deliberations spanning the 1980s through the 2010s.

How does this connect to the Supreme Court case over Boulder, Colorado?

The disclosures surfaced as the U.S. Supreme Court this week heard arguments from ExxonMobil and oil producer Suncor Energy seeking to halt a lawsuit filed by the city and county of Boulder, Colorado, according to the report. The ruling could determine whether more than two dozen similar claims against oil companies proceed. Most of those lawsuits argue oil companies should help cover costs imposed on the public by climate-fueled extreme weather because the companies knew the risks posed by their products while publicly questioning climate science and resisting emissions limits, the report states.

What are advocates and the companies saying?

Aaron Regunberg, director of climate accountability at the advocacy group Public Citizen, said the Massachusetts filings help explain why Exxon and other companies are fighting to keep similar lawsuits from reaching the discovery phase. "They are really scared of the public finding out about this reality," Regunberg said, according to the report. He added that the documents suggest "we have seen just a sliver of the evidence that they actually have that they've spent decades knowingly deceiving the public about this crisis. How many more reports are they sitting on?"

Where does the Massachusetts lawsuit stand?

Massachusetts filed its suit against ExxonMobil in 2019. The documents cited in the Inside Climate News report were released earlier this year as part of that ongoing case, without an accompanying public announcement, according to the report. The case is among dozens nationally testing whether oil companies can be held financially liable for climate-related damages tied to their products and public statements.

Read the full Inside Climate News report via Ars Technica: Internal files add to evidence of an ExxonMobil climate deception campaign

Artiglio is A coming-soon iPhone chief of staff for briefings and drafts. Not on the App Store yet.