Minnesota and D.C. Join the Political, Anti-Oil Expedition

July 20, 2020

Late last year, New York state finally lost its anti-Exxon legal battle after nearly four years of investigating. A Democratic-appointed state judge rejected the lawsuit, calling its claims “hyperbolic.” Still, Minnesota and Washington, D.C. are about to engage in the same drawn-out, politically driven process.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board recently wrote:

The new cases, against Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron and Koch Industries, dredge up old internal documents, but they look political from top to bottom. Minnesota’s suit, focused on Exxon, helpfully includes links to source files. Clicking through reveals so many tendentious quotations that Attorney General Keith Ellison refutes his own claims.

A foundational argument of the lawsuits faults oil companies for donating to the American Enterprise Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and other such “climate denial groups.” It also mentions the Red River flood of 1997, which, in reference to its cause, the Minnesota Public Radio has reported, “Scientists don’t know for sure.”

Once again, supporters of the eco-left are pursuing their political agenda in the courts. They are making this pursuit in the name of “saving the planet,” but they are only revealing their hypocrisy. This time, especially after New York’s recently failed attempt, we can only hope that the process doesn’t take four years.

One defendant in the Minnesota lawsuit operates the Pine Bend Refinery, which pipes jet fuel to the Minneapolis airport. Mr. Ellison was in Congress when many of these industry memos were published years ago. Did he announce that he would henceforth commute to Washington, D.C., by electric car?