ExxonMobil has filed suit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several prominent California and national environmental activist groups, accusing them of "dragging" ExxonMobil's name and reputation "through the mud" as part of a coordinated "lawfare" campaign against the energy company, allegedly with the backing of an Australian mining company and its billionaire owner promoting their own "green energy" goals.
ExxonMobil filed the complaint in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas in the city of Beaumont, about 85 miles east of the company's corporate headquarters in Houston.
The lawsuit names Bonta as a defendant, along with activist organizations, the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay Inc., Baykeeper Inc. and the Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund.
The lawsuit comes a little over three months since Bonta and the environmental activist organizations lodged separate, but similar lawsuits against ExxonMonbil in California state court in San Francisco.
Those lawsuits demanded ExxonMobil be made to pay for allegedly misleading consumers and governments about the virtues of plastic recycling.
Specifically, the lawsuits took aim at ExxonMobil's claims concerning the benefits and effectiveness of its so-called "advanced recycling" systems.
ExxonMobil has proclaimed its chemical "advanced recycling" process, which the company says it "pioneered," will revolutionize recycling efforts in the U.S. and beyond, allowing a wide array of plastic products, which traditionally have been difficult or impossible to recycle, to be broken down and reformed into other useable goods "essential to our modern way of life."
Bonta and environmental activists, however, have asserted those claims are overblown, at best.
In the lawsuits, Bonta and his activist allies said ExxonMobil has "deceived Californians" and others "for more than half a century by promising recycling could and would solve the ever-growing plastic waste crisis."
However, they asserted ExxonMobil has known all along that even its "advanced recycling" process would "never be able to process more than a tiny fraction of the plastic waste it produces."
In their new lawsuit, ExxonMobil said they are not suing Bonta or the activists for the lawsuits nor assailing Bonta's perogative, as a state attorney general, to criticize the company or debate the merits of plastics recycling.
Rather, they said they are taking aim at statements made by Bonta and the activists against ExxonMobil, which the company said has smeared its reputation and cost it business from clients who would otherwise have partnered in its "advanced recycling" ventures.
"As Attorney General, Mr. Bonta is entitled to file lawsuits on behalf of the State of California. This case does not challenge that conduct. Defendants are not entitled to engage in a false media campaign against ExxonMobil’s reputation and character nor engage in tortious interference. It is that conduct that is at issue in this lawsuit," ExxonMobil said.
They asserted they have been "repeatedly and publicly" attacked by Bonta, individually, and the environmental activist groups "with false accusations of being a 'liar' and declarations that advanced recycling is a 'myth' and a 'sham.'"
They pointed to statements Bonta made in interviews and on social media accusing ExxonMobil of a "decades-long campaign of deception" and stating: "ExxonMobil lied" about recycling.
ExxonMobil further asserted activists have accused the company of "polluting with impunity" and even of "homicide." They pointed to statements from San Francisco Baykeeper Executive Director Sejal Choksi-Chugh, who said "ExxonMobil's plastic polymers are poisoning waterways, wildlife, and people' and that 'this stuff is killing us a little bit more every day.'"
The complaint asserts the lawsuit from Bonta, in particular, represents an abrupt about face from the California state government, which for decades had served as one of the leading promoters of recycling of all kinds, including plastics, in the U.S.
In the complaint, ExxonMobil asserts the sudden change from Bonta was not in good faith.
"Why would Mr. Bonta or anyone who claims to be serious about cleaning up the environment and helping solve the plastic waste issue take such extreme measures to shut down the emerging and developing advanced recycling industry?" ExxonMobil wrote in its complaint.
"The answer is foreign influence, personal ambition, and a murky source of financing rife with conflicting business interests. With apparently no appreciation for the irony of their claim, Mr. Bonta and his cohorts are now engaging in reverse greenwashing; while posing under the banner of environmentalism, they do damage to genuine recycling programs and to meaningful innovation."
The lawsuit asserts the alleged campaign against ExxonMobil was coordinated through the IEJF, identified as an Australian charity under the umbrella of philathropic organization Minderoo, founded and led by billionaire Andrew Forrest, founder and still one of the largest shareholders of Australian mining company, Fortescue.
According to the complaint, Fortescue, which formerly was one of the world's largest extractors of iron ore, has in recent years shifted its focus to promoting so-called "green energy" projects under the leadership of Forrest.
According to the complaint, Fortescue's new ventures have placed it into competition with ExxonMobil and other American oil and gas producers.
According to the complaint, the IEJF hired a U.S. law firm, Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy, of Burlingame, California, to help organize a political and legal campaign against ExxonMobil, including the filing of lawsuits.
"Having failed to successfully compete against ExxonMobil in the marketplace, Fortescue has, on information and belief, orchestrated a campaign to compete by turning the wheels of American justice to the company’s self-interested purposes," ExxonMobil said.
The complaint asserts the level of "foreign influence" of the "lawfare" against ExxonMobil, allegedly through Minderoo and the IEJF, is underscored by Cotchett's decision to register at the direction of the U.S. Justice Department as a foreign agent.
"Few, if any, plaintiff’s law firms have been forced by a Department of Justice to register as agents of a foreign entity," ExxonMobil said.
According to the complaint, the Cotchett firm then allegedly "signed up" the environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, Surfrider, Heal the Bay and Baykeeper to sign on to the activist lawsuit as "US Proxies" and "nothing but local placeholders," at the behest of IEJF.
The complaint asserts the legal services agreement between Cotchett and the IEJF states:
“IEJF will continue funding [the plastics] litigation as long as it deems appropriate.”
"Since March 2024, the IEJF has paid Cotchett hundreds of thousands of dollars in consideration for legal services provided in connection with the US Proxies’ plastics lawsuit," ExxonMobil asserted in its complaint.
The complaint asserts the Australian interests also allegedly used the Cotchett firm to influence Bonta, cultivating "deep financial ties" to Bonta and his political campaign.
"The Cotchett firm itself, the four partners who were forced to register as foreign agents, and multiple other members of the firm have donated tens of thousands to Mr. Bonta’s political campaign at almost the exact same time as the firm received as much or more in fees for 'legal services' from the Foreign Interests," ExxonMobil said in the complaint.
"... Indeed, there can be no question that Cotchett, through its NGO lawsuit, and Bonta, through his lawsuit (both of which attack advanced recycling), are working together," ExxonMobil added.
They noted Bonta and the environmental groups announced their legal actions at the same time at a joint press conference and Bonta referred to their efforts as a "partnership and collaboration."
ExxonMobil's lawsuit leveled counts of business disparagement, defamation, tortious interference with contract and prospective business, and civil conspiracy against all of the named defendants.
ExxonMobil is also seeking a "declaration that advanced recycling is recognized and permitted by law in multiple states, including Texas and that ExxonMobil is lawfully permitted to engage in and promote advanced recycling at its Texas facility."
ExxonMobil said that declaration is needed to allow the company to counter still more lawsuits over its recycling claims, likely patterned after the California lawsuits from Bonta and his activist allies.
The lawsuit does not name Minderoo, Fortescue or Forrest as defendants.
In a statement published by Reuters and others, a Bonta spokesperson said ExxonMobil's suit is “another attempt from ExxonMobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception."
Those published reports also included statements from Fortescue and the IEJF denying the coordination alleged by ExxonMobil.
ExxonMobil is represented in the Texas lawsuit by attorneys Michael P. Cash and Wade T. Howard, of the firm of Liskow & Lewis, of Houston.