I’m behind in following up on the Federal RICO investigation of climate skepticism, and only this weekend finally got round to reading the subpoena that the Department of Justice has sent to ExxonMobil by way of the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands. And I must say I am disappointed. There’s a long list of climate criminals, most of them friends or acquaintances of mine, whose communications to and from Exxon are demanded, and . . . I’m omitted from the list!
In case you’ve forgotten.
What the hell? It was barely a year ago that I was targeted as one of the “Grijalva Seven,” i.e., one of seven academics that Democratic Congressman Raul Grijava was “investigating” from his perch as the ranking member of the House Science and Technology Committee. (I say “investigated” because as the ranking member of the committee, Grijalva had no actual legal authority. He just sent a letter.) Making the Blacklist of leading climate skeptics is one of the highlights of my life. As I said here at the time:
I’m flattered to have been elevated to the ranks of Richard Lindzen, John Christy, Judith Curry, and Roger Piekle Jr. as all-stars in the climate field, and it was very nice of them to aggregate all of my congressional testimony (a grand total of five times in 15 years—yeah, that really makes me a “go-to” guy doesn’t it?) in one location (scroll down to the bottom).
And it was nine years ago that the Climatistas were accusing me of trying to “bribe” climate scientists with Exxon money! (You can read all about this comic misadventure here if you like.) For the record, while I know a lot of Exxon people and talk with some of them occasionally, I’ve never had formal contacts with them about my climate and energy work. You can only serve one master, after all, and naturally I take my orders from the Kochs. (/sarc alert) The British newspapers that started that silly episode actually retracted their stories on this faux-scandal after Exxon threatened them with a libel suit for alleging criminal activity.
So now I’m bummed out that the subpoena mentions a wide roster of organizations and individuals, but I’m nowhere to be found. An oversight, or am I slipping?
I can’t find an electronic text copy, but you can access a PDF of the complete subpoena here. Scroll down to page 12, item #6, where the affected organizations are listed, and you’ll note AEI, my former employer, is missing from the list. And then item #7 on page 14 lists individuals by name (see below). I suppose I might be covered by the final catch-all sentence (“and any other persons conducting research or advocacy concerning climate change”). Any other persons who conducted research and advocacy on climate that Exxon may have spoken with? I suspect the Virgin Islands might tip over from the amount of paperwork this could generate. I hope Exxon sends it all to them on a fully loaded ExxonValdez. Here, have fun.
Looking over this enormous laundry list of targets, I’m reminded of that famous phrase from the 1950s: “A conspiracy so immense. . .”
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