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U.S. Supreme Court Denies ExxonMobil's Bid To Stymie Mass. Probe Into Climate Documents

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (Mark Lennihan/AP)
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (Mark Lennihan/AP)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it won't hear an appeal by ExxonMobil, removing a potential road block from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's effort to obtain documents as part of her probe into the company.

Healey is looking into whether the oil giant knowingly concealed information about the impact of climate change from the public.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in April, upheld a lower court ruling ordering Exxon to comply with Healey's investigation. The company then appealed to the Supreme Court, asking it to step in.

"Today’s #SCOTUS victory clears the way for our office to investigate Exxon’s conduct toward consumers and investors," Healey said on Twitter. "The public deserves answers from this company about what it knew about the impacts of burning fossil fuels, and when."

Exxon has not responded to a request for comment.

As Reuters reports, the Massachusetts probe, and another by New York State, "were launched following 2015 news reports that Exxon's own scientists had determined that fossil fuel combustion must be reduced to mitigate the impact of climate change.

"Those news reports, by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times, were based on documents from the 1970s and 1980s. Exxon said the documents were not inconsistent with its public positions."

With past reporting by The Associated Press

This article was originally published on January 07, 2019.

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