Yes!!! New York Attorney General Launches Criminal Probe into Exxon's Climate Lies

It's one thing to knowingly deceive and confuse the public about the reality of climate change but when you're also misleading shareholders into how climate change might affect their investments that's quite another.

In a move that could ripple through the fossil fuel industry, New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, has subpoenaed Exxon's records, documents and emails pertaining to climate change.

The focus includes the company’s activities dating to the late 1970s, including a period of at least a decade when Exxon Mobil funded groups that sought to undermine climate science. A major focus of the investigation is whether the company adequately warned investors about potential financial risks stemming from society’s need to limit fossil-fuel use.

Kenneth P. Cohen, vice president for public affairs at Exxon Mobil, said on Thursday that the company had received the subpoena and was still deciding how to respond.

...The people with knowledge of the New York case also said on Thursday that, in a separate inquiry, Peabody Energy, the nation’s largest coal producer, had been under investigation by the attorney general for two years over whether it properly disclosed financial risks related to climate change. That investigation has not been previously reported, and has not resulted in any charges or other legal action against Peabody.

...The Exxon Mobil investigation might expand further, to encompass other oil companies, according to the people with knowledge of the case, though no additional subpoenas have been issued to date.

There is now a solid scientific consensus that any hope we may have of keeping global warming within the 2 degree Celsius target will require that we leave about 80% of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground, unburned, and effectively stranded. The fossil fuel giants continue to carry those reserves on their books as assets and at "face value" that may be wildly overstated. This creates a "carbon bubble" that is expected to burst, literally wiping out the value of the energy giants and their shareholders' investments.