California blames ExxonMobil for plastic air pollution disaster

California’s lawyer common has announced a initially-of-its type investigation into the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries for their alleged role in producing and exacerbating a world-wide disaster in plastic squander air pollution.

Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta stated Thursday that his business office has subpoenaed Exxon Mobil Corp. trying to find information and facts related to the company’s “historic and ongoing efforts” to reduce the public’s being familiar with of the destructive implications of plastic.

“For far more than 50 % a century, the plastics business has engaged in an intense marketing campaign to deceive the community, perpetuating a myth that recycling can fix the plastics disaster,” Bonta said.

Fossil fuels this kind of as oil and gasoline are the raw content of most plastics. In latest many years, the accumulation of plastic waste has confused waterways and oceans, sickening marine life and threatening human overall health.

In a statement released late Thursday, Exxon Mobil denied the accusations.

“We reject the allegations created by the lawyer general’s place of work in its push launch,” mentioned Julie L. King, a spokeswoman for the company. “We are targeted on answers and meritless allegations like these distract from the crucial collaborative operate that is underway to greatly enhance waste administration and increase circularity.”

King reported Exxon Mobil has been collaborating with governments such as the condition of California, communities and other industries to aid business-scale sophisticated recycling.

The announcement of the investigation comes amid an urgent and rising movement across California to control plastic air pollution by cutting down it at its supply. In the past two weeks, the metropolis and county of Los Angeles have announced ordinances and directives to decrease plastic squander, when state legislators, lobbyists and negotiators discussion a monthly bill that could ban quite a few sorts of single-use plastics. Also, in November, Californians will have the prospect to vote on a ballot initiative created to suppress plastic pollution.

Speaking at Dockweiler Point out Beach — an spot of Los Angeles County coastline sandwiched in between a Chevron oil refinery and a significant sewage outflow — Bonta stated that despite the public’s perception that plastics are seriously recycled, additional than 90% of them end up possibly buried in landfills, burned or flushed into the ocean.

Inside files from the 1970s warned sector executives that recycling was “infeasible,” he famous, and that there was “serious doubt” that plastic recycling “can ever be made practical on an financial basis.” Indeed, in spite of the industry’s many years-very long recycling campaign, the extensive majority of plastic products, by structure, cannot be recycled and the U.S. plastic recycling charge has never broken 9%.

“In California and throughout the world, we are looking at the catastrophic success of the fossil gasoline industry’s a long time-very long campaign of deception. Plastic pollution is seeping into our waterways, poisoning our ecosystem and blighting our landscapes,” Bonta claimed. “Enough is plenty of.”

No other point out or region has undertaken such an investigation into the oil and plastics industry. However, California’s probe does mirror other weather change investigations and lawsuits that governments throughout the nation have introduced in opposition to the fossil fuel industry, accusing it of deception and trying to find compensation for the threats and hazards caused by its merchandise.

“This is connecting the dots at a greater level than we have at any time witnessed just before, in a way that could maintain fossil gas organizations accountable for just one of the greatest environmental crises of our time,” stated Jennifer Savage, who leads Surfrider Foundation’s national efforts to cease plastic pollution.

“Most people do not notice how tightly plastic output is tied to the fossil gas sector,” she claimed. “People never believe of plastic pollution as a fossil fuel or local climate transform difficulty, but they’re definitely two sides of the very same coin. … The only way that we are going to remedy the plastic pollution crisis is to maintain the fossil gas market accountable. And this is a major move in that direction.”

The legal professional general’s investigation is aimed at pinpointing if any of Exxon Mobil’s steps violated condition law and were primarily based on “good faith” understanding of open-supply materials about the business. The subpoena, Bonta observed, is just the starting. He said his legal team was starting with Exxon Mobil since it is “one of the, if not the biggest producer of plastics in the globe, as very well as one particular of the leaders when it arrives to deception. They have distinguished them selves simply because of the quantity of plastic they have developed and put into the planet.”

The plastics market commenced an aggressive marketing campaign in the 1980s to sway public feeling when point out legislatures and regional governments tried out to look at limiting or banning plastic goods, Bonta reported. “We will be as thorough, as extensive, as wide, as is necessary, to get to the bottom of this challenge of the hurt that plastics has induced — and the deception — both previous and ongoing,” he mentioned of the investigation.

Responding to the probe’s announcement, Matthew Kastner, spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, a trade group symbolizing Exxon Mobil and the petrochemical business, said in a statement that “plastics belong in our financial system, not our environment.” He mentioned his corporation is fully commited to a extra “sustainable future” that features “bold” government steps, as very well as increasing recycling and squander management infrastructure.

He did not specifically respond to inquiries about the subpoena or investigation.

Jay Ziegler, director of policy and exterior affairs for the Nature Conservancy in California, explained that Thursday’s motion by the state reminded him of the key investigations that had uncovered the tobacco marketplace.

“Wow, it is like ‘Thank You For Smoking’ all above once more,” Ziegler claimed, referring to the satirical novel by Christopher Buckley that follows a tobacco lobbyist who encourages the advantages of cigarette smoking.

Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Squander, agreed.

“This is no distinctive than the ways applied by the tobacco business to market using tobacco and by these similar oil corporations to avoid motion on climate adjust,” he reported. “They know that what they are performing is destroying the world and impacting pubic overall health, but rather of investing in sustainable options they spend their cash to lobby versus reform and to deceive the public.”

Sean Hecht, co-executive director of UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Institute on Local climate Adjust and the Ecosystem, famous similarities to the ongoing issues versus opioid suppliers, as nicely as the new climate disinformation situations building their way as a result of courtroom.

He also pointed to a lawsuit led by Santa Clara County towards previous lead paint brands. The scenario, which was settled in 2019 following 20 several years of litigation, “was found as pretty considerable in developing that there could be liability in a scenario like this,” he mentioned.

Plastics never fully degrade. They just split down into more compact and smaller sized parts referred to as microplastics. These particles normally have dangerous chemical additives this sort of as flame retardants or plasticizers, and a greatly cited scientific review of 52 scientific studies concluded that human beings on common consume a credit score card’s well worth of microplastic every week.

In just the very last number of months, investigation has demonstrated the presence of plastic particles in human blood, healthful lung tissue and meconium — the initial bowel movement of a new child. They are also located in maritime organisms, ocean water, air and soil.

Some scientists job that by 2050, there may possibly be much more plastic by weight in the world’s oceans than there are fish. UC Davis researchers the moment sampled seafood sold at marketplaces in 50 % Moon Bay and identified that just one-quarter of fish and one particular-3rd of shellfish contained plastic debris.

However, plastic creation has ongoing to develop, and documents display that the fossil gasoline and petrochemical industries are still increasing their plastics infrastructure and capabilities. In the U.S. alone, companies from across the globe have invested $208 billion because 2010 in new amenities, expansions and manufacturing unit restarts.

State Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), who has championed this situation for decades, claimed that all the momentum now coming collectively across the state speaks to how pressing the plastics issue has turn out to be.

“We all understand what an urgent concern this is,” he mentioned, “and which is why we’re so deeply fully commited.”