ExxonMobil sues California AG, environmental groups for defamation

Global petrochemical company ExxonMobil Corp., based in Houston, has filed a federal defamation lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and environmental groups San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay, the Surfrider Foundation, the Sierra Club and the Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund (IEJF) after what the company calls a public “smear campaign” against its plastic recycling efforts.

The suit was filed in Texas’ Eastern District Court in Beaumont and seeks compensatory damages for reputation and economic harm, as well as retractions of defamatory statements made by Bonta and the environmental groups. It alleges that while California has enacted multiple laws designed to promote and even mandate recycling, and Bonta has “long promoted and encouraged recycling” dating back to his days as a city councilman in Alameda, California, a decade ago, there has been a “staggering reversal.”

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The suit claims that in a coordinated effort, Bonta, the Sierra Club and “a collection of erstwhile recycling enthusiasts” now are attacking the company for its advanced recycling operations, which it says are part of the solution to plastic waste rather than the problem.

“Instead of coming alongside efforts to support a developing technology and an emerging business model designed to recycle otherwise difficult-to-recycle plastics, defendants are repeatedly and publicly attacking ExxonMobil with false accusations of being a ‘liar’ and declarations that advanced recycling is a ‘myth’ and a ‘sham’,” the suit states, adding that the reason Bonta and the environmental groups have taken such a position against advanced recycling is because of “foreign influence, personal ambition and a murky source of financing rife with conflicting business interests.”

The suit alleges the Australia-based IEJF, a charity founded by one of the largest shareholders of an Australian mining conglomerate and a current competitor with ExxonMobil in the low-carbon solutions and energy transition sector, retained U.S. lawyers from the Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy firm to engage in “political activities,” including filing a lawsuit against ExxonMobil on behalf of the environmental groups. Additionally, the lawsuit claims the firm has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Bonta’s political campaigns, creating the “personal ambition and fundraising opportunism” that motivated the defendants’ “about-face on recycling.”

“Contrary to [the] defendants’ statements, the truth is ExxonMobil continues to invest millions of dollars researching, developing and deploying improved methods for recycling plastics,” the suit states. “ExxonMobil is in the business of providing solutions to meet society’s needs. ExxonMobil’s innovative advanced recycling program gives new life and value to plastic waste that might otherwise go to landfill. It is a proven technology that allows numerous different, difficult-to-recycle plastics to be aggregated and converted into raw materials for making valuable new products, such as fuel, lubricants, chemicals and plastic. To date, ExxonMobil has recycled over 70 million pounds of plastic waste. That is 70 million pounds of waste that might otherwise have been sent to or remained in landfills. And ExxonMobil’s capacity and capabilities are increasing at a rapid pace.

“Advanced recycling works, and as it is broadly adopted, it can greatly increase the recycling rate for plastics and promote a more circular economy. Decades of legislative and executive action at both the state and federal level have supported necessary, uniform policies to address plastic pollution. Half of the states in the nation have adopted laws supporting advanced recycling.”

In response, Sierra Club spokesperson Jonathon Berman says in a statement, “Exxon is clearly confused about the difference between defamation and accountability. This lawsuit is a shameless attempt at intimidation by a multibillion-dollar corporation that covered up its climate change denial for decades. The Sierra Club will not sit back as ExxonMobil attempts to use their billions to bully those standing up for the health of working families.”

ExxonMobil’s court filing comes nearly four months after Bonta filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly engaging in a decades-long “campaign of deception” that caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis. Bonta’s suit, filed in the San Francisco County Superior Court Sept. 23, 2024, alleges the company “has been deceiving Californians for half a century through misleading public statements and slick marketing” promising that recycling would address the ever-increasing amount of plastic waste the company produces.

Bonta’s suit, which has since been moved to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks to compel ExxonMobil to “end its deceptive practices that threaten the environment and the public,” and secure an abatement fund, disgorgement and civil penalties for the harm inflicted by plastics pollution upon California’s communities and the environment.

“Plastics are everywhere, from the deepest parts of our oceans, the highest peaks on earth, and even in our bodies, causing irreversible damage—in ways known and unknown—to our environment and, potentially, our health,” Bonta said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible. ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health. Today’s lawsuit shows the fullest picture to date of ExxonMobil’s decades-long deception, and we are asking the court to hold ExxonMobil fully accountable for its role in actively creating and exacerbating the plastics pollution crisis through its campaign of deception.”