Rick Steiner and Mike Chenault agree on something.<\/p>\n
In separate announcements this week, both figures said an action this week by Alaska\u2019s new attorney general represents a significant shift in the state\u2019s attitude toward Big Oil.<\/p>\n
In a message dated Aug. 17, the Alaska Department of Law filed a \u201cfriend of the court\u201d brief in support of several states who are alleging that ExxonMobil Corp. concealed research findings pertaining to global climate change.<\/p>\n
In late 2015, New York\u2019s attorney general attempted to subpoena Exxon to obtain its research and determine whether the company deliberately concealed knowledge of climate change. At the time, the move was compared to cigarette companies\u2019 concealment of the health harm of smoking. The oil giant sued, calling the probe an abuse of power.<\/p>\n
Various states have chimed in on different sides of the lawsuit, including Massachusetts, which launched its own investigation. In June, Alaska joined several oil-producing states in opposition to the probe by Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
Exxon\u2019s defensive lawsuit is seeking to put the case into federal court in Texas, instead of state court in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
Now, Alaska has signed a document opposing Exxon\u2019s attempt to put the case into federal court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe characterization that this is a \u2018shift in position\u2019 is somewhat misleading,\u201d said Cori Mills, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Law, by email.<\/p>\n
As she explained the matter, former Alaska attorney general Craig Richards was opposing \u201cthe merits of the underlying investigation,\u201d or the subject under investigation.<\/p>\n
New attorney general Jahna Lindemuth is supporting the idea that the case is a state matter, not a federal one. State courts, not federal ones, typically hold jurisdiction over consumer protection lawsuits. Massachusetts and other states have said that\u2019s exactly what this case is.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is simply about ensuring that an area that is largely regulated by the states, consumer protection, remains a state \u2014 not a federal \u2014 issue,\u201d Mills said.<\/p>\n
Neither Steiner, one of Alaska\u2019s most prominent conservation scientists, nor Chenault, Alaska\u2019s pro-development Republican Speaker of the House, agrees with that assertion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this represents a clear change in policy,\u201d Steiner wrote by email.<\/p>\n
He said he believes the state is reluctant to admit as much so it can avoid criticism from the oil companies. Despite a significant drop in oil prices, Alaska receives more than half its state revenue from taxes levied on oil production.<\/p>\n
In a press release Wednesday, Chenault and Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, called the state\u2019s action a \u201cflip flop.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlaska should stick with its initial decision and not waste Alaskans\u2019 money on this environmentalist-led oil company witch hunt,\u201d Chenault said in a prepared statement. \u201cWe need to focus on how to get our own house in order before we go and tell someone else what to do with theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n
By phone, LeDoux said it\u2019s clear that the state \u201cwas doing one thing and now it\u2019s doing the opposite thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she\u2019s opposed to the state\u2019s intervention in the case because it doesn\u2019t have money to waste.<\/p>\n
Mills, by email, said the state is not spending money on the case, simply filing a brief in support, but LeDoux said \u201cwhat you use your manpower on is<\/em> spending money.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter James Brooks at 523-2258 or james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rick Steiner and Mike Chenault agree on something. In separate announcements this week, both figures said an action this week by Alaska\u2019s new attorney general represents a significant shift in the state\u2019s attitude toward Big Oil. In a message dated Aug. 17, the Alaska Department of Law filed a \u201cfriend of the court\u201d brief in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":24771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[34,230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska-legislature","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24770"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}