Last week, it came out that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used an alias email account to discuss climate change — along with other corporate issues — with other high level executives and board members while he was CEO of ExxonMobil. Now, Exxon says it has “lost” a year’s worth of those emails.
A New York judge on Wednesday ordered the company to work with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office to produce all the documents covered under a subpoena for communication about climate change— including emails to and from “Wayne Tracker,” the alias used by Tillerson.
Exxon is currently under investigation by Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, following allegations that the company knowingly misled the public on the risks of climate change.
Schneiderman’s office says the company did not initially disclose that the Wayne Tracker email account was actually Tillerson’s. Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager told Exxon to provide statements and records that would explain how, exactly, they managed to lose the Wayne Tracker emails.
“Sixteen months after our initial subpoena, Exxon was ordered by the court to finally produce all documents from its management committee, and to provide clear answers to the AG’s office about any documents — including those from alias accounts — that were lost,” Amy Spitalnick, a press officer at the NY Attorney General’s Office, told ThinkProgress in an email.
Tillerson’s middle name is Wayne, and the company has said the email account was used to help Tillerson connect directly with other executives, since his primary email account was overloaded.
The company has been under investigation since 2015, when Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times independently discovered that Exxon scientists were aware of the risks of climate change as far back as the 1970s. The federal Securities and Exchange Commission is also investigating. It is illegal to mislead the public — and therefore shareholders — about risks to a publicly traded company’s bottom line.
“Exxon has withheld information from the public for long enough. It’s time for the oil company to come clean in the courts about what it knew about climate change and what it withheld from the public and shareholders,” Greenpeace campaigner Naomi Ages said in a statement.
Ages also praised Schneiderman’s office, saying, “This country needs more attorneys general who, on behalf of the people, are ready to face off with one of the biggest polluters in the world.”