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The oil and gas industry has a new battle to fight with California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s first-of-its-kind investigation into their role in the global plastics crisis—and it looks a lot like one they’ve been fighting over climate change.
Bonta on ThursdayAnnouncementHis investigation revealed that his office had subpoenaed ExxonMobil for its role in the plastics crises. By Friday, environmental advocates from California to New York were applauding, and environmental lawyers were pondering the similarities between Bonta’s investigation and ongoing efforts byCities and statesTo hold the oil and gas industries responsible in court for climate change.
Judith Enck, president of the environmental group Beyond Plastics and a former EPA regional administrator, called the investigation “very significant” because it has “the potential to finally hold plastic producers accountable for the immense environmental damage caused by plastics.” It will also “address the ongoing deception of claiming that plastics are recyclable when, in fact, less than 10 percent are actually recycled,” she said.
Pat Parenteau, an environmental law professor at Vermont Law School and the former director of the school’s Environmental Law Center, said that if Bonta’s investigation seems familiar, it should.
“We have seen this movie before,” Parenteau said. “This is a page from the same book that attorneys general have taken with climate investigations … related to carbon pollution.”
He stated that none of the lawsuits against oil companies by cities or states have yet to result in verdicts or court rulings that hold fossil fuel corporations responsible for climate change. However, the oil and natural gas companies have not been in a position to stop the lawsuits. Many of them are still pending before the courts.
“Now, the California attorney general is moving into a similar kind of investigation in terms of plastic pollution, and there are some obvious connections—what the oil companies are doing to the climate, and what the oil companies are doing to the oceans,” Parenteau said.
A New York judge will rule in 2019 Cleared Exxon of investor fraud allegations, but wrote: “nothing in this opinion is intended to absolve Exxon from responsibility for contributing to climate change.”
ExxonMobil responded to Bonta’s announcement with a denial.
“We reject the allegations made by the Attorney General’s office in its press release,” the company said in a written statement. “We share society’s concerns and are collaborating with governments, including the State of California, communities, and other industries to support projects around the world to improve waste management and circularity.”
Circularity is a term used in the industry. Please describeIts vision of recycling and reusing plastics.
The American Chemistry Council was a pro-plastics lobby that also fought back.
“We strongly disagree with the portrayal of our industry by Attorney General Bonta,” said Joshua Baca, vice president of plastics for the council, in a written statement. “As we’ve repeatedly emphasized, plastics belong in our economy, not our environment.
“Rather than losing time and resources responding to misleading portrayals of our industry and misguided initiatives that delay real progress, we want to remain focused on ongoing efforts to improve plastics recycling and provide meaningful results.”
Plastic pollution has reached the highest mountains and the deepest parts the ocean; into marine mammals’ bellies, the placentas of new mothers, and into the blood of humans.
In March, the United Nations described plastics as a “triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution,” at a meeting where the U.N. Environmental Assembly put the world on track to forge, for the first time, a legally binding global agreement to curb plastic pollution.
Bonta MadeHis announcement was made with the Pacific Ocean as the background, along with a beach in southern California. He said that the beach needs to be cleaned of plastic litter every day.
Much the same as what Inside Climate NewsBased on Exxon documents, the Los Angeles Times reported it in 2015. Bonta said that the industry misled the public regarding plastics.
The industry has made false claims that have minimized the public’s understanding of the harmful consequences of plastic products and even whether plastics can be recycled, he said.
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In the 1980s, Bonta said, the plastics industry, including major fossil fuel and petrochemical companies, began “an aggressive and deceptive campaign that we could recycle our way out of the plastics waste problem that was emerging at that time. It was all a big ruse.
“The truth is,” he said, “the vast majority of plastics cannot be recycled.”
He said the investigation would “focus on this half-century campaign of deception, and the ongoing harm to the state, our residents and natural resources. “We are going to target companies that have caused and exacerbated the global plastics crisis,” he said. “We will not hesitate to hold these companies accountable if the law was violated.”
Parenteau said it’s too soon to say whether the investigation will result in legal action in the form of a civil or criminal case. He said that it could lead to either.
“We know from past experience the AG is likely to find evidence” of misleading statements in advertising and annual reports, he said.
He said that it will likely help consumers and the public better understand the plastics problem and their role in it.
The investigation could be used as an educational tool to rally Californians behind legislation to combat plastic pollution. It would also support a November ballot measure that environmental organizations back to reduce single-use plastic packaging across the state. California Recycling and Plastic Pollution Reduction Voter ActAnja Brandon from the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental group, said that plastics policy analysis at the U.S. is a key area of interest.
Bonta’s investigation could also inspire other states or the federal government to take similar action, Brandon said.
“The attorney general’s announcement is an unmistakable signal to the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries that there will be no turning back on this issue,” she said. “They will be held accountable.”
Reporter, Southeast. National Environment Reporting Network
James Bruggers covers the U.S. Southeast, part of Inside Climate News’ National Environment Reporting Network. He previously covered energy and the environment for Louisville’s Courier Journal, where he worked as a correspondent for USA Today and was a member of the USA Today Network environment team. Before moving to Kentucky in 1999 Bruggers was a journalist in Montana and Washington. Bruggers’ work has won numerous recognitions, including best beat reporting, Society of Environmental Journalists, and the National Press Foundation’s Thomas Stokes Award for energy reporting. He was president for two years and served on the SEJ board of directors for thirteen years. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife Christine Bruggers.
