Post by Logan on Jul 3, 2016 12:15:02 GMT -6
Texas and Alabama's attorneys general on Thursday said they have dropped legal action against the Virgin Islands after the U.S. territory agreed to drop its request for records from Exxon Mobil Corp. as part of an investigation into whether the company misled investors by understating climate change risks.
The dismissal comes a month after the world's largest publicly traded oil and gas firm, which is headquartered in Irving, asked Ken Paxton, Texas' top lawyer, to challenge the investigation launched by the U.S. Virgin Islands' attorney general. Paxton and Luther Strange of Alabama, a fellow Republican, filed a motion to intervene in the case.
Paxton said in a statement Thursday that U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Earl Walker had issued an "unconstitutional and harassing subpoena for decades of Exxon Mobil records."
“The so-called 'investigation' by Walker was a constitutionally improper attempt to suppress the freedom of speech based only on the content being communicated," Paxton said. "In America, we have the freedom to disagree, and we do not legally prosecute people just because their opinion is different from ours. We are glad that the abuse of power by Attorney General Walker, and those that he hired, has come to an end."
Read more: www.texastribune.org/2016/06/30/paxton-drops-lawsuit-over-exxon-climate-change-pro/
The dismissal comes a month after the world's largest publicly traded oil and gas firm, which is headquartered in Irving, asked Ken Paxton, Texas' top lawyer, to challenge the investigation launched by the U.S. Virgin Islands' attorney general. Paxton and Luther Strange of Alabama, a fellow Republican, filed a motion to intervene in the case.
Paxton said in a statement Thursday that U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Earl Walker had issued an "unconstitutional and harassing subpoena for decades of Exxon Mobil records."
“The so-called 'investigation' by Walker was a constitutionally improper attempt to suppress the freedom of speech based only on the content being communicated," Paxton said. "In America, we have the freedom to disagree, and we do not legally prosecute people just because their opinion is different from ours. We are glad that the abuse of power by Attorney General Walker, and those that he hired, has come to an end."
Read more: www.texastribune.org/2016/06/30/paxton-drops-lawsuit-over-exxon-climate-change-pro/