Thread by @KlasfeldReports

Good afternoon from New York.

Trial in the New York AG's fraud case accusing Exxon of misleading investors about risks due to the climate crisis is about to kick off in state court in Manhattan, which I will cover live for @CourthouseNews.

@CourthouseNews Flashback: Notable revelations that unfolded on the road to trail back in 2017, related to Exxon's ex-CEO Rex Tillerson.

ICYMI: courthousenews.com/fraud-probe-un…

@CourthouseNews Assistant AG is up first: "What we are saying is that Exxon not mislead its investors. That's what this case is about."

@CourthouseNews AAG says that the separate costs were known internally, including "carbon asset risks," finding that regulation due to the climate crisis could make fossil fuels "uneconomical to extract."

Quoting Exxon documents, AAG says: "We rigorously consider the risk of climate change in our planning bases and investments."

AAG: “These statements were false and did not reflect what Exxon was actually doing.”

AAG claims that this op-ed by Exxon's VP published in the Dallas Morning News in 2016, touting its efforts in the wake of the Paris Climate Agreement, was false and misleading. dallasnews.com/opinion/commen…

The AAG is Kevin Wallace, acting bureau chief of the investor protection bureau.

Slide up now:

Alberta 2015: "alternate methodology" to avoid "massive GHG costs."

This refers to the Tar Sands project.

Around this time, Wallace notes, Morgan Stanley published an analysis finding: “Climate change is increasingly recognized as a material investment consideration that investors cannot ignore.”

Wallace: Rex Tillerson was "deeply involved" in these issues for "years."

Wallace asks the judge for a "comprehensive review" of Exxon's carbon costs going back to fiscal year 2014, in order to tabulate the damages demanded.

Per Wallace: Exxon claims this sentence from a 2014 doc was the only disclosure it needed to make.

"Perhaps most importantly, we require that all our business segments include, where appropriate, GHG costs in their economics when seeking funding for capital investments."

Wallace emphases: "We are not telling [Exxon] how to run its business," but the company's internal docs "at odds" with what it told investors.

"The costs of that failure are staggering. Investors are entitled to the truth."

Recess before Exxon's up. (Corrected tweet)

Exxon's attorney insists the company accepts "climate change is real" and it should “be addressed” by the nations of the world.

In 2006, Rex Tillerson became the CEO of Exxon and he recognized that climate change regulations were increasing, the attorney says.

Exxon attorney calls this line of the NYAG's complaint "outrageous."

"Exxon's fraud was sanctioned at the highest levels of the company."

He claims that NYAG did not ask to interview Rex Tillerson for years, until recently.

Exxon attorney Theodore Wells appears to have just confirmed that Tillerson will be a "live witness."

He quotes Tillerson:

"I had taken the view and we had taken the view as a corporation that the risk of climate change and that… appropriate action was going to be needed."

Wells moves to his conclusion:

"I want to use my last two minutes by talking about the elephant in the room," which delves into allegations that former NYAG Eric Schneiderman brought the case for political reasons.

Schneiderman announced probe with Al Gore, Well notes.

He speaks about emails with climate activists that he says would "vilify" ExxonMobil, and it's unclear that these emails will be allowable into evidence.

"Why would the AG do something like this?" Wells asks, saying that AG's office wouldn't "stay in their lane."

That's the end of opening statements.

Witness testimony starts tomorrow morning. Look out for a story soon at @CourthouseNews.