Big Oil throws California’s climate change hypocrisy back in its face

CNBC ^ | January 11. 2018 | by Jake Novak

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Several California cities and counties are suing Big Oil for allegedly suppressing evidence of climate change dangers.

But ExxonMobil's attorneys did some legwork and found something interesting in municipal bond offerings of many of the same cities and counties suing them. Those offerings include several examples of climate change threats being downplayed or even completely ignored.

The Big Oil lawyers also note that:

* San Francisco has twice made bond offerings for its Municipal Transportation Agency since 2014 that do not contain the words "global warming" or "climate change."

* San Mateo County is suing the oil companies because it says in its complaint that it is "particularly vulnerable to sea level rise" and that there is a 93 percent chance the county experiences a "devastating" flood before 2050. But San Mateo noted in bond offerings in 2014 and 2016 that the county "is unable to predict whether sea-level rise or other impacts of climate change or flooding from a major storm will occur."

* Imperial Beach, California claims in the lawsuit that it faces a very high danger from sea level rise and its economic vulnerability from climate change is valued at more than $106 million. But the city has never warned investors that such disasters await them.

The sanctimonious climate change alarmism only gets worse when you throw in the rhetoric some of the political leaders have used recently.

For example, Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina excoriated the oil companies in front of the news media last summer, exclaiming: "They knew about sea-level rise. They knew the damage it would cause, and they should be held accountable!"

I guess Imperial Beach's bondholders could say the same about him.

[TigersEye]

They all know that GlowbullWarming/ClimateChange is #FakeScience.
Scammers never believe in their own scams.

[Pining_4_TX]

And it’s about time companies started standing up to leftist bullies instead of groveling and throwing money at their pet causes.

[justa-hairyape]

That just demonstrates that they do not actually believe in Climate Change. Otherwise they would be warning potential investors who could counter sue if they were not warned. Illegals and Climate. Just tools of the crony trade.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

If I were the oil companies I would STOP selling their products in Ca.!

Not really. What they will do is raise the price of gasoline in CA to make up the difference if they lose the suits.

. . . which implies that these suits are, in effect, back door efforts to raise taxes on gasoline.