January, 20 2016, 02:45pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Lisa Nurnberger, Media Director, lnurnberger@ucs.org
Science Group Lauds California Attorney General's Move to Investigate ExxonMobil
WASHINGTON
According to a Los Angeles Times story, California Attorney General Kamala Harris is investigating whether ExxonMobil repeatedly lied to shareholders and the public about the risks of climate change and whether such actions could amount to securities fraud and violations of environmental laws.
Below is a statement by Ken Kimmell, Union of Concerned Scientists President
"California Attorney General Kamala Harris's reported decision to investigate ExxonMobil brings us one step closer to holding hold fossil fuel companies accountable for decades of deception about the harm caused by their product.
"Since November, thousands of Californians--including more than 3,700 UCS supporters--have signed petitions calling on Attorney General Harris to launch an investigation into possible misconduct by ExxonMobil. Almost 13,000 UCS supporters are also among the nearly 390,000 people who have joined calls for a federal investigation of ExxonMobil.
"California's investigation builds on a groundbreaking inquiry launched in November by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to determine whether ExxonMobil misled its shareholders and the public. It is the latest in a growing movement to uncover the truth, supported by members of Congress, presidential candidates, a former Department of Justice attorney, and more than 60 leaders of major environmental, social justice and indigenous people's organizations. Last month, U.S. Representatives Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and 43 other members of Congress sent ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson and other leading fossil fuel company CEOs a letter, which cited UCS's "Climate Deception Dossiers," asking whether the companies intentionally spread disinformation about climate science."
Below is a statement by Peter Frumhoff, Director of Science and Policy
"The investigation launched by California Attorney General Kamala Harris is built on recent research by UCS and others, which have systematically documented ExxonMobil's pattern of disinformation. Evidence from our "Climate Deception Dossiers" shows that ExxonMobil's own scientists have known about the risks posed by climate change for nearly 40 years, but the company still chose to fund a multi-million dollar, decades-long disinformation campaign against climate science and solutions.
"This pattern of deception continues today and California has been a particular target of that deceit. Over the past few years, the Western States Petroleum Association, of which ExxonMobil is a member, has been actively misinforming the public on climate and energy policies in the state, as documented in our report."
Frumhoff will be giving a public talk tomorrow at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego: "Who is Responsible for Climate Change?"
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
LATEST NEWS
Infant Death Rate 3 Times Higher Near PFAS-Contaminated Sites in New Hampshire: Study
One scientist said the new research "provides rare causal evidence" and "not just a correlation" of the dangers posed by forever chemicals to infants.
Dec 09, 2025
Infants born to mothers who drank water from wells downstream of sites contaminated by so-called "forever chemicals" in New Hampshire suffered nearly three times the baseline death rate, more premature births, and lower birth weights, a study published Monday revealed.
Researchers at the University of Arizona tracked 11,539 births occurring within 3.1 miles of sites in the New England state known to be contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—commonly called forever chemicals because they do not biodegrade and accumulate in the human body. They found a 191% increase in first-year deaths among infants born to "mothers receiving water that had flowed beneath a PFAS-contaminated site, as opposed to comparable mothers receiving water that had flowed toward a PFAS-contaminated site."
Mothers in the study zone also experienced a 20% increase in preterm births and a 43% higher incidence of low birth weight. Out of every 100,000 births, this equates to 611 additional deaths by age 1, as well as 2,639 extra underweight births and 1,475 additional preterm births.
Extrapolating to the 48 contiguous US states and the District of Columbia, the study's authors also found that "PFAS contamination imposes annual social costs of approximately $8 billion."
"These health costs are substantially larger than current outside estimates of the cost of removing PFAS from the public water supply," the publication states.
As study authors Derek Lemoine, Ashley Langer, and Bo Guo noted:
PFAS from contaminated sites slowly migrate down through soil into groundwater, where they move downstream with the groundwater’s flow. This created a simple but powerful contrast: Pregnant women whose homes received water from wells that were downstream, in groundwater terms, from the PFAS source were likely to have been exposed to PFAS from the contaminated site, but those who received water from wells that were upstream of those sites should not have been exposed.
Previous research has shown the link between PFAS exposure and reduced birth weight, as well as changes in fetal and newborn metabolism.
Forever chemicals are used in a broad range of products, from nonstick cookware to waterproof clothing and firefighting foam. Bills to limit PFAS have died in Congress under intense lobbying from the chemical industry, which has long known—and tried to conceal—the health and environmental dangers of forever chemicals.
More than 95% of people in the United States have PFAS in their blood, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Around 172 million Americans are believed to consume PFAS in their drinking water.
Forever chemicals have been linked to cancers of the kidneys and testicles, low infant weight, suppressed immune function, and other adverse health effects.
Responding to the new research, Duke University associate research professor in environmental sciences Kate Hoffman told the Washington Post that the study "provides rare causal evidence" and "not just a correlation" of the dangers posed by forever chemicals to infants.
While experts say the study demonstrates the importance of more robust federal regulation of PFAS, the Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking to lift current limits that protect drinking water from four types of forever chemicals.
“This is a betrayal of public health at the highest level," Environmental Working Group president Ken Cook said earlier this year in response to the Trump administration's efforts to roll back PFAS protections. "The EPA is caving to chemical industry lobbyists and pressure by the water utilities, and in doing so, it’s sentencing millions of Americans to drink contaminated water for years to come.”
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Israel Named Leading Killer of Journalists in 2025 for Third Straight Year
Nearly half of the worldwide reporters who lost their lives on the job this year were killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Dec 09, 2025
The report released Tuesday by the global press freedom group Reporters Without Borders provides an accounting of the killing of dozens of journalists across the globe in 2025, but nearly half of the people whose deaths are included were killed by the same group: the Israel Defense Forces.
For the third year running, as Israel's attacks on Gaza and the West Bank continue despite a ceasefire agreement reached in October in Gaza, the country was named as the top killer of journalists and media workers, having killed at least 29 Palestinian reporters this year.
Out of 67 reporters killed while doing their jobs in the past year, 43% were killed in Gaza by the IDF—called "the worst enemy of journalists" in 2025.
"Journalists do not just die—they are killed," said Reporters Without Borders, also known by its French name, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), as it released its 2025 Round-up. "The number of murdered journalists has risen again, due to the criminal practices of military groups—both regular and paramilitary—and organized crime."
In 2025, the number of journalists killed on the job rose by one compared to 2024.
#RSFRoundUp 2025: Journalists don't die, they are killed. In 2025, the number of journalists killed rose once more.Let's continue to count, name, denounce, investigate, and ensure that justice is done. Impunity must never prevail.Watch our #RSFRoundUp2025 ⬇️
[image or embed]
— RSF (@rsf.org) December 9, 2025 at 3:10 AM
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was named in RSF's report as one of the world's "Press Freedom Predators," along with Myanmar's State Security and Peace Commission—the country's de facto military government—and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Mexico, where at least three journalists were killed this year while they were covering drug trafficking in areas where the cartel is influential.
In the case of Netanyahu's government, reads the report "the Israeli army has carried out a massacre—unprecedented in recent
history—of the Palestinian press. To justify its crimes, the Israeli military has mounted a global propaganda campaign to spread baseless accusations that portray Palestinian journalists as terrorists."
The 29 reporters killed in Gaza this year are among more than 200 journalists killed by the IDF since it began its assault on the exclave in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. According to RSF, 65 of those killed were "murdered due to their profession," and others were killed in military attacks.
The report notes the "particularly harrowing case" of two strikes that targeted a building in the al-Nasser medical complex which was "known to house a workspace for journalists" on August 25.
Reuters photographer Hossam al-Masri was killed in the first strike, and a second strike eight minutes later killed Mariam Abu Dagga of the Independent Arabia and the Associated Press, freelancer Moaz Abu Taha, and Al Jazeera photograher Mohamad Salama.
The journalists had been covering rescue operations and the impacts of other airstrikes. They were killed two weeks after an IDF strike killed five other Al Jazeera reporters and an independent journalist while they were in their tent outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Israel claimed one of the reporters, Anas al-Sharif, was "the head of a Hamas terrorist cell"—an allegation that was denied in independent assessments by United Nations experts, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, and RSF.
The killing of the reporters and dozens of others around the world, said RSF director general Thibaut Bruttin on Tuesday, "is where the hatred of journalists leads!"
"They weren’t collateral victims," said Bruttin. "They were killed, targeted for their work. It is perfectly legitimate to criticize the media—criticism should serve as a catalyst for change that ensures the survival of the free press, a public good. But it must never descend into hatred of journalists, which is largely born out of—or deliberately stoked by—the tactics of armed forces and criminal organizations."
Palestine was named as by far the most dangerous place in the world for journalists this year, while Mexico was identified as the second-most dangerous, with nine reporters killed despite "commitments" President Claudia Sheinbaum made to RSF.
The journalists "covered local news, exposed organized crime and its links to politicians, and had received explicit death threats," reported RSF. "One of them, Calletano de Jesus Guerrero, was even under government protection when he was murdered."
Bruttin warned that "the failure of international organizations that are no longer able to ensure journalists’ right to protection in armed conflicts is the consequence of a global decline in the courage of governments, which should be implementing protective public policies."
Three journalists were killed in Ukraine in one month, targeted by Russian drone attacks even as they wore helmets and bulletproof vests that clearly identified them as members of the press. Two reporters were killed in Bangladesh in apparent retaliation for their reporting on crimes.
The report also notes that 503 journalists are detained around the world, with Israel the second-biggest jailer of foreign journalists after Russia. Twenty Palestinian reporters are currently detained by Israel, including 16 who were arrested over the past two years in the West Bank and Gaza. Just three—Alaa al-Sarraj, Emad Zakaria Badr al-Ifranji, and Shady Abu Sedo—where released as part of the ceasefire agreement in October after having been "unlawfully arrested by Israeli forces" in Gaza.
"It is our responsibility to stand alongside those who uphold our collective right to reliable information. We owe them that," wrote Bruttin. "As key witnesses to history, journalists have gradually become collateral victims, inconvenient observers, bargaining chips, pawns in diplomatic games, men and women to be eliminated. Let us be wary of false notions about reporters: No one gives their life for journalism—it is taken from them."
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Military Budget Bill Would Ramp Up Israel Aid to Fill In 'Gaps' When Other Countries Impose Embargoes Over Genocide
The House Armed Services Committee said in September that the measure "combats antisemitism."
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A little-reported provision of the latest military spending bill would direct the US to create a plan to fill the "gaps" for Israel whenever other nations cut off arms shipments in response to its acts of genocide in Gaza.
As Prem Thakker reported Monday for Zeteo, the measure is "buried" more than 1,000 pages into the more than 3,000-page National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which is considered by lawmakers to be “must-pass" legislation and contains a record $901 billion in total spending.
Republicans are shepherding the bill through the US House of Representatives, where—as is the case with most NDAAs—it is expected to pass on Wednesday with Democratic support, even as some conservative budget hardliners refuse to back it, primarily over its $400 million in military assistance to Ukraine.
Since the genocide began following Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023, the US has provided more than $21.7 billion to Israel, including hundreds of millions that have been supplied through NDAAs.
The new NDAA includes at least another $650 million to Israel, an increase of $45 million from the previous one, even though this is the first such bill to be introduced since the "ceasefire" that went into effect in October. This aid from the Pentagon comes on top of the $3.3 billion already provided through the State Department budget.
But this NDAA also contains an unprecedented measure. It calls for the “continual assessment of [the] impact of international state arms embargoes on Israel and actions to address defense capability gaps."
The NDAA directs Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to assess “the scope, nature, and impact on Israel’s defense capabilities of current and emerging arms embargoes, sanctions, restrictions, or limitations imposed by foreign countries or by international organizations,” and “the resulting gaps or vulnerabilities in Israel’s security posture.”
As Drop Site News explains, "this means the US would explicitly use federal law to step in and supply weapons to Israel whenever other countries cut off arms to halt Israel’s ongoing violations across the region."
"The point of this assistance, to be clear, is to make up for any identified insufficiencies Israel may have due to other countries' embargoing it as a result of its ongoing genocide in Palestine," Thakker wrote.
A similar provision appeared in a September version of the NDAA, which the House Armed Services Committee praised because it supposedly “combats antisemitism"—explicitly conflating a bias against Jewish people with weapons embargoes that countries have imposed to stop Israel from continuing its routine, documented human rights violations in Gaza.
Among the nations that have cut off weapons sales to Israel are Japan, Canada, France, Italy, and Spain. Meanwhile, other major backers, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, have imposed partial freezes on certain weaponry.
While official estimates from the Gaza Ministry of Health place the number of dead from Israel's military campaign at over 70,000, with more than 170,000 wounded, an independent assessment last month from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany and the Center for Demographic Studies in Spain found that the death toll “likely exceeds 100,000." This finding mirrored several other studies that have projected the true death toll to be much higher than what official estimates show.
Embargoes against Israel have been called for by a group of experts mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council, including Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. Meanwhile, numerous human rights organizations, including the leading Israeli group B’Tselem, have said Israel’s campaign in Gaza has amounted to genocide.
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