California Attorney General Rob Bonta hoped to earn his anti-fossil fuel credentials when he filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil in 2024, alleging the company was engaging in deceptive practices related to its “advanced recycling” program. [some emphasis, links added]
He probably didn’t expect that the company would fight back the way it has.
For years, oil companies have been the target of vitriol and lawfare, especially in California. When California’s gasoline prices spiked in the summer of 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed refineries were “price gouging,” even though his own energy officials disputed the claim.
Newsom signed legislation requiring the refineries to be transparent so that the alleged price gouging could be revealed, but in fact, no evidence of gouging was ever found.
In most cases, oil companies stay defensive when regulations and litigation target them with accusations of wrongdoing, but Exxon didn’t take Bonta’s lawsuit lying down.
Instead, the company filed a defamation suit against Bonta and some environmental groups.
Going on the offensive
Bonta had sought to get the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that the statements Exxon claims were defamatory were made in the course of his duties as attorney general, and that should grant him immunity from lawsuits.
A federal judge earlier this month disagreed and ruled that Exxon could proceed with its case against Bonta.
In 2024, Energy Transfer Partners successfully sued Greenpeace, and a North Dakota jury found the group at fault for harming the pipeline company’s reputation by publishing false statements during the 2016 protests over the Dakota Access pipeline.
North Dakota Judge James Gion set a settlement amount at $345 million, which was reduced from the jury’s original amount, and the Associated Press reports that he intends to make Greenpeace pay up.
The organization warns that if it’s forced to pay, it will have to cease operations. It intends to appeal the decision.
Whether or not Exxon was inspired by Energy Transfer Partners’ success, the lawsuit against Bonta represents a rare case of Big Oil going on the offensive.
“I think the oil companies are sick and tired of getting beat around all the time,” said John Shu, a legal scholar who served in both Bush administrations.
Connections to climate advocacy groups
In his lawsuit against Exxon, Bonta alleges that the oil giant misled the public on the efficacy of its ability to solve the “plastic waste and pollution crisis” with an advanced recycling process.
Advanced recycling aims to turn plastic polymers back into their original molecules so they can be processed and used again as plastics or other products, such as jet fuel.
As is the case with lawsuits seeking damages related to climate change, Bonta’s lawsuit is connected to well-funded anti-fossil fuel activist groups.
In 2024, the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which is funded by the Rockefeller Family Fund, published a report alleging that “Big Oil” deceived the public for decades and caused what it calls the “plastic waste crisis.”
Bonta’s lawsuit cites the activists’ report and uses similar language.
Around the same time Bonta was filing his lawsuit, Inside Climate News, another Rockefeller-funded activist publication, was partnering with media outlets to attack plastic recycling as a false solution to plastic waste.
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