The New York Attorney General filed charges against Exxon Mobil Corporation ("Exxon") for inaccurately reporting an estimate of potential costs related to climate change regulation.

According to the complaint filed in the Supreme Court of New York State, Exxon provided public estimates of the expected costs to the company of futures climate change regulation that were inconsistent with the way that it was actually calculating those estimated costs. According to the charges, Exxon provided a "highly misleading analysis" to its investors indicating that it faced little or no risk from the climate change regulations.

Commentary / Steven Lofchie

The gist of the case is not as to a dispute over whether Exxon's business will be harmed by climate change, or even as to whether climate change regulation will hurt Exxon. Rather, the complaint is with Exxon's description of the manner in which it described the potential costs of climate change regulation and the manner in which it calculated those costs.

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