Al Gore and Eric Schneiderman Hail ‘Best, Most Hopeful Step’ Against Climate Change


Former Vice President Al Gore today lauded what he called “the best, most hopeful step” in years to contain global warming: 16 state prosecutors joining New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s crusade against energy giants that they assert have fraudulently fought caps on greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr. Gore joined Mr. Schneiderman and a contingent of attorneys general ranging from Vermont to the Virgin Islands at the Empire State pol’s Lower Manhattan office. The official occasion was a joint amicus brief the lawyers filed with the federal district court currently weighing the fate of President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would set a national ceiling on carbon dioxide output—and which numerous states and power companies have sued to stop.

But the overarching theme of the press event was Mr. Schneiderman’s probe of Exxon Mobil to determine if they misled investors and the public about the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels.

“Years from now, this meeting by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and his colleagues here today may be well be looked back upon as a real turning point,” the Inconvenient Truth narrator said. “Commercial interests that have been, according to the best available evidence, deceiving the American people, communicating in a fraudulent way, about the reality of the climate crisis and the dangers it poses.”

The overwhelming majority of scientists believe that the planet as a whole is getting hotter and that CO2 from cars and coal-burning power plants are the primary cause. But the issue has become increasingly politicized, with energy industry groups and Republican lawmakers arguing either that average temperatures are not rising or that human activity is not at fault. (by Will Bredderman, Observer)


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