FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 29, 2015
Contact: Jason Kowalski, (716) 984-4200

Hillary Clinton Calls for Federal Investigation of Exxon

In response to a question posed at White Mountains Community College in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton called on the Department of Justice to investigate Exxon: “Yes, yes they should…there’s a lot of evidence they misled people.”

With Clinton’s statement, all Democratic presidential candidates have now called for a federal investigation of Exxon. Earlier this month, Senator Sanders sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking for the Dept. of Justice to form a task force by Dec. 19th to investigate Exxon. Governor O’Malley also voiced his support for an investigation on Twitter.

Clinton joins a growing chorus of elected officials calling for Exxon to be investigated. After InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times reported that Exxon’s climate scientists knew as early as 1977 that climate change was being driven by the burning of fossil fuels, Representatives Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier asked Attorney General Lynch to investigate whether Exxon broke the law by “failing to disclose truthful information” about climate change. Earlier today, Senators Whitehouse, Markey, Warren, and Blumenthal sent a letter to Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson asking for the company to disclose whether its donations to a financial clearinghouse were used to fund climate denier groups.

President Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch have yet to respond.