“For more than three decades, ExxonMobil has devoted its resources to deceiving the public about climate science while using its knowledge about climate change to advance its business operations,” said CLF president Bradley Campbell. “Communities were put in danger and remain in danger, all to cut costs for one of the most profitable corporations in the world. It’s time to make Exxon answer for decades of false statements to the public and to regulators and ensure that its Everett facility meets its legal obligation to protect thousands of people and the Boston Harbor estuary from toxic water pollution.”

In March of this year, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general seeking to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for campaigns to deceive customers, shareholders, and the public about climate risk. While CLF is the first organization officially to file a civil lawsuit against ExxonMobil for this deceit, many other legal actions are likely to follow.

Damali Vidot, Chelsea City Councilor-At-Large, commented, “As a mom and a representative of my community, I feel I have a responsibility to protect my kids and those I serve against the impacts of pollution in our water. I’m standing with CLF today because I believe Exxon must be held accountable for its actions.”

CLF’s trial team for the case will include nationally renowned attorney Allan Kanner of the Louisiana-based Kanner & Whiteley, whose firm has represented states and other plaintiffs in landmark cases against major oil companies, including claims arising from BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill.

During the three day march from Providence to Burrillville, ahead of Governor Raimondo’s meeting with residents, the people protesting Invenergy‘s planned $700 million fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant made one small detour to the site of the 2001 MTBE disaster that affected and even destroyed so many lives in Pascoag. On the site of a long dead ExxonMobil Gas Station, overgrown with weeds and bushes, where only rubble and dirt remain, the marchers gathered to refresh themselves and listen to the stories of an environmental disaster.

Pascoag resident Thomas Sylvester laid out the scene for everyone. The gas station is on a hill. The contaminated water wells are about a quarter mile down the road. “Under where we are standing there is shell ledge and bedrock that is permeated with gasoline,” said Sylvester, “we speak about MTBE but really what we’re talking about is a gas spill.”

The wells that were contaminated were new. It took only months to reveal that they were contaminated. “What this means is that this gas station was leaking for a long time before those wells ever went in,” said Sylvester, “MTBE is a tracer, it’s the first contaminant to come out.” This means that the rest of the gasoline, and all the “really nasty stuff” that makes it up, is right behind the MTBE. In truth, the MTBE is only a small part of the problem, and a sign of bigger problems ahead.

Opening the well down the hill won’t remediate the area, says Sylvester. If someone were truly interested in remediating the water, the would put a well “almost where we are standing.” Using the well down the hill will only draw more contaminants down the hill, the “really nasty stuff” that right now is contained beneath the long dead Mobil station. The plan currently under consideration by Invenergy will draw more contaminants into the aquifer says Sylvester. Residents with their own wells might find their water becoming contaminated years from now.

There were a thousand homes and 4000 residents affected by the MTBE contamination. It took years for the state to be involved. People hired their own water safety experts, hired their own lawyers. There was no Energy Facilities Siting Board to hear their worries.

Sylvester first noticed the contamination when his wife was nursing their son, and the baby’s face became red and irritated where it came in contact with his wife’s skin. She had recently taken a shower, and the MTBE was hurting her baby. The sweet smell of the contamination filled the house. Sylvester began putting saran wrap over the toilets. He used bottled water in his house’s steam heating to minimize exposure to the well water. He and his family bathed and did laundry at their relative’s homes. They went without water, except for toilets, for 248 days.

Terri Lacey told the story of her niece and nephew, who “lived right around the corner.” They had a little girl at the time. Lacey’s niece developed thyroid cancer and her nephew developed Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Her nephew was given last rites four times before a treatment finally sent his cancer into remission.

“I remember being in the shower and feeling something, I couldn’t even describe it. The water didn’t feel right on my skin and there was a smell….”

Invenergy “is not remediating [the well] for us, they’re opening a monster for us.”

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, and Representative Ted Lieu, of California, are sponsoring a resolution in Congress calling out fossil fuel companies for their “sophisticated and deceitful campaign” to deny climate science.

In the resolution Whitehouse and Lieu talk about lead and tobacco manufacturers developing “a sophisticated and deceitful campaign that funded think tanks and front groups, and paid public relations firms to deny, counter and obfuscate peer-reviewed research” and using “that misinformation campaign to mis-lead the public and cast doubt in order to protect their financial interest.”

Whitehouse, long considered the Senate’s foremost climate advocate, draws some criticism in Rhode Island for his tacit support of LNG and his refusal to come out against both a proposed power plant in Burrillville and the LNG infrastructure expansion that has been proposed for both Burrillville and South Providence.

In an email, Whitehouse said he’s “joining a group of my colleagues on the Senate floor to expose a web of denial: Along with respected scientists and journalists, we’re standing strong to shine a light on the trade associations, think tanks and shady front groups that have been funded by the Koch brothers, ExxonMobil and their allies to con the public and undermine climate action.”

The Conservation Law Foundation applauded the efforts of Whitehouse and Lieu regarding the resolution. In a statement, the CLF said:

“Corporations like ExxonMobil have spent decades using the same playbook as Big Tobacco to cover up the enormous societal harm brought on by the products they’re peddling,” said CLF president Bradley Campbell. “It’s time for our leaders to hold them accountable and to stand up for communities across the country already facing significant public safety and economic hazards from the impacts of climate change. We applaud Representative Lieu and Senator Whitehouse for bringing this issue to the forefront, and we’re confident that, even in the face of these companies’ multi-million dollar lobbyists, the truth on our side will ultimately win the day.”

The most high-profile company engaged in such behavior, ExxonMobil, is currently facing a first-in-the-nation lawsuit from the CLF (Conservation Law Foundation) over its indifference and harm to the Greater Boston community.

After an exposé last September by InsideClimate News revealed that ExxonMobil has engaged in a deliberate cover-up of sound climate science for more than thirty years, CLF launched its own investigation and discovered that the company’s deceit has put New England communities in harm’s way. On May 17, CLF announced that it would be taking legal action against ExxonMobil for its continued neglect of the communities lining the Mystic River, communities increasingly threatened by ExxonMobil’s unwillingness to bring its facility in Everett, Massachusetts up to code.

Rhode Island building and trade unions are working with a Koch brother-funded astroturfing campaign to fight against renewable energy, an email obtained by RI Future reveals.

Michael Sabitoni, president of the Rhode Island Building & Construction Trades Council, had distributed to union members and legislators an email from Paul Hartman of Energy4US, a shadowy oil industry insider, asking if “someone from your shop could add a comment or two” to a Facebook post that labeled Energy4US as a “‘big oil’ entity,” according to the email.

Efforts to contact Mr. Sabitoni were unsuccessful.

“We are thrilled to have the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council on board with Energy4US and I look forward to working with you and your members in the future,” said Hartman in the email.

Energy4US is an astroturfing campaign attempting to raise support for fossil fuels and downplay the expansion of renewable energy sources. In Rhode Island, Energy4US has concentrated on opposing the carbon tax bill proposed by Representative Aaron Regunberg. Astroturfing “is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by a grassroots participants.”

On June 20 Paul Hartman, the coalition advisor for Energy4US, sent Sabitoni the following email:

In the email Hartman notes the existence of “a few comments on Facebook” that call Energy4US out as an astroturfing group, or in the words of Hartman, “only a ‘big Oil’ entity.” Hartman asks Sabitoni if “someone from your shop could add a comment or two to the post highlighting your collective concerns with such proposals.”

Sabitoni promptly forwarded the email to three recipients under the header, “Energy4US and RI Carbon Tax proposal” saying:

Scott send this out to all b[uilding] t[rades] reps…Faith put this up on our web site please…thx M

Here’s the Facebook post in question, with a link to the ‘op-ed’ –

According to Frackorporation, “Energy 4 Us lists no one by name with regards to staff or contact… To the casual viewer it appears to be an independent “grassroots” group.” Paul Hartman, who identifies himself as Energy4US’s coalition advisor in his email to Sabitoni, is mentioned as the Regional Director, State Affairs for America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) in the Frackorporation piece. Hartman does not list his involvement with Energy4US on his LinkedIn page.

In an email Hartman confirmed that he has “recently come on board as the Coalition Advisor.” He answered none of my questions regarding the claims that Energy4US is an astroturfing group, instead claiming that, “E4US is a collaboration of diverse organizations from across the northeast who have an interest in affordable, reliable energy for our families, employers, employees, communities, schools, hospitals and the most vulnerable among us.”

They are listed on the website, seen below, second from the bottom of the list. Hartman wrote, “I would encourage you to check back often to see the growth of the collaboration and check our social media feeds for educational posts on national and regional energy issues.”

The Rhode Island Building & Construction Trades Council is listed as a member of the Energy4US coalition, along with many other union groups such as the New York State Iron Workers District Council and the Connecticut State Building Trades and Construction Council. Also listed on the website as a coalition member is the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM). The AFPM is yet another coalition, of big oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Citgo and Koch Industries, among others.

“ExxonMobil’s strategy of publicly denying the very risks its scientists have known for decades has direct impact on Greater Boston communities,” said CLF President Brad Campbell. “ExxonMobil knowingly and unlawfully misled regulators about whether its Everett facility can withstand rising seas, more intense precipitation, and other climate impacts without spewing oil and other toxic pollutants into adjoining neighborhoods, the Mystic River, and the Boston Harbor. Today’s lawsuit – the first of its kind – aims to hold ExxonMobil accountable for decades of dishonesty and require that the Everett facility meet the legal standards for climate-readiness.”

At today’s press conference on the shores of the Mystic River, Campbell stood with numerous local leaders and activists in declaring that ExxonMobil’s irresponsible and illegal actions would no longer be allowed to go unanswered.

Roseann Bongiovanni, Chelsea Green Space environmental justice advocate, commented, “I’ve lived in Chelsea my entire life, and for all that time there’s been imbalance between community members who desperately want waterfront access and the industries that dominate the water’s edge. A decade ago, ExxonMobil spilled thousands of gallons of oil into our river and denied its wrongdoing for months until confronted and forced to pay by the Department of Justice. Today, we have a greater understanding of the full extent of ExxonMobil’s climate denial and we have another opportunity to show the world that we won’t stand for it.”

In March of this year, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general seeking to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for campaigns to deceive customers, shareholders, and the public about climate risk. While CLF is the first organization officially to begin a civil lawsuit against ExxonMobil for this deceit, many other legal actions are likely to follow.

EkOngKar Singh (EK) Khalsa, President of the Mystic River Watershed Association, added, “The Mystic is one of our state’s great treasures, where hundreds of thousands of fish spawn, wildlife seek refuge and eagles fly overhead. Unfortunately, we continuously battle against a history of industrial contamination. It is time for ExxonMobil to step up to the plate and take responsibility for the ongoing harm it is causing our river and our community.”

CLF’s trial team for the case will include nationally renowned attorney Allan Kanner of the Louisiana-based Kanner & Whitely, whose firm has represented states and other plaintiffs in landmark cases against major oil companies, including claims arising from BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill.

Campbell added, “A generation ago, the nation was appalled by the indifference to public safety and the environment that resulted in a drunk ship captain grounding the Exxon Valdez on Alaska’s Bligh Reef, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil into the Prince William Sound. Today in Everett, we must hold ExxonMobil accountable once again for its indifference to the public in the face of potential catastrophe.”

An interview with Roseann Bongiovanni, Chelsea Green Space environmental justice advocate, about a previous oil spill by ExxonMobil in the Mystic, the corporation’s denial of any wrongdoing, and the enormous cost to the Chelsea community and economy.

Another interview with Roseann Bongiovanni speaking about the respiratory problems and other serious health issues caused by air quality levels that far exceed the EPA’s standards for safety.

An interview with EkOngKar Singh (EK) Khalsa, President of the Mystic River Watershed Association, talking about the importance of the Mystic River to the local communities and the neighborhood impacts from continued pollution.

This video from 2007 shows polluted water flowing from a large pipe into the Island End River after a rain event. ExxonMobil discharges polluted water through this pipe every day of the year— up to 280 gallons per minute during dry weather and much more during rain events. The pollutants ExxonMobil is discharging are extremely hazardous, and ExxonMobil’s discharges often grossly exceed the waste limits set out in its discharge permit. The Island End River is water quality impaired, as is the Mystic River into which it flows, and ExxonMobil is contributing to those impairments by discharging toxic pollutants on a daily basis.