Oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil Corp. filed a countersuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups on Monday, accusing them of colluding on a campaign of defamation against the company’s plastic recycling initiatives.
In that lawsuit, Bonta and the groups accused Exxon Mobil of “engaging in a decades-long campaign of deception that caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis.”
They further claimed that Exxon falsely promoted the idea that the single-use plastics it produced would be recycled, when in fact the vast majority likely are not.
ExxonMobil said in its responding legal challenge filed on Monday that Bonta’s lawsuit amounts to defamation.
“Together, Bonta and the US Proxies—the former for political gain and the latter pawns for the Foreign Interests—have engaged in a deliberate smear campaign against ExxonMobil, falsely claiming that ExxonMobil’s effective and innovative advanced recycling technology is a ‘false promise’ and ‘not based on truth,’” the company said in its lawsuit.
The oil giant is seeking unspecified damages and retractions of “defamatory statements” from Bonta and the groups.
In a statement to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for Bonta’s office described ExxonMobil’s lawsuit as another attempt by the company to “deflect attention from its own unlawful deception.”
The Attorney General “is proud to advance his lawsuit against ExxonMobil and looks forward to vigorously litigating this case in court,” the spokesperson added.
Separately, Sierra Club spokesperson Jonathan Berman said Exxon is “clearly confused about the difference between defamation and accountability.”
Exxon Mobil Deceived Californians, Bonta Says
In their lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, Bonta and the groups claimed the oil giant deceived Californians for half a century through “misleading public statements” and “slick marketing” promising that recycling would address the “ever-increasing amount of plastic waste ExxonMobil produces.”It did so while concealing the harms caused by plastics, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint highlighted Exxon’s advanced recycling program, which uses heat to break down plastic waste that is difficult to recycle to a molecular level so it can be reused.
According to Bonta and the groups, ExxonMobil “promotes the program as a breakthrough in technology that will make plastics sustainable” but “hides important truths about its technical limitations.”
They alleged that only about 5 percent of U.S. plastic waste is recycled and that the recycling rate has never exceeded 9 percent.
Additionally, 92 percent of plastic waste processed through ExxonMobil’s advanced recycling technology does not become recycled plastic but rather primarily fuels, Bonta and the groups said.
The lawsuit alleged violations of California nuisance law and California unfair competition law.
“ExxonMobil’s ‘advanced recycling’ program is nothing more than a public relations stunt meant to encourage the public to keep purchasing single-use plastics that are fueling the plastics pollution crisis,” Bonta and the groups said in a statement.
The company has been selling off its oil and gas properties in California while criticizing the state’s energy regulations.
The Epoch Times contacted Bonta’s office for further comment but received no reply by publication time.
