Fraud, Free Speech and Fossil Fuel: Lessons from Big Tobacco for Big Oil

Abstract

ABSTRACTRecent journalistic investigations revealed that ExxonMobil carried out research beginning in the 1970s indicating fossil fuel's dangerous role in global warming. Rather than heed the warnings of its research, for the next few decades, ExxonMobil instead chose to become a leader in climate change denial; stressing uncertainty, propagating misinformation, funding denial, and politicizing and undermining the expert scientific consensus. Exxon's behavior invoked the tactics used by the tobacco industry years earlier, tactics which wound up the subject of a successful federal government lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The parallels with the tobacco industry prompted legislators and environmentalists to call on the Department of Justice to use RICO again to hold the fossil fuel industry to account. This article will consider the legal issues associated with bringing such an action, and whether useful lessons can be drawn from the tobacco litigation.