ExxonMobil is countersuing California months after the state sued the oil and gas giant, claiming it lied about plastics recycling. Now, the company accused California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, of defamation saying, he engaged in “a deliberate smear campaign.”
Bonta filed a lawsuit against the company in September 2024, asking that it pay civil penalties and fines after a more than two year investigation. He said it was time to hold it accountable for misleading marketing campaigns.
Bonta alleged the company tried to convince the public that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution problem, when it clearly knew that wasn’t possible, resulting in landfills and oceans being filled with plastic waste.
ExxonMobil is accusing Bonta of making false statements in interviews about its recycling technology, causing prospective business deals to fall apart. The company is seeking monetary damages and retractions from the AG, as well as from four environmental groups also named in the lawsuit.
The Sierra Club, San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay and the Surfrider Foundation all filed their own lawsuit against Exxon, coinciding with Bonta’s lawsuit.
A spokesman for the Sierra Club, Jonathon Berman, called the suit “a shameless attempt at intimidation.”
A spokesperson for California’s Department of Justice said the lawsuit is “another attempt from ExxonMobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception” adding that Bonta looks forward to fighting the case.
Meanwhile, Exxon maintains that its recycling technology is not a “farce” or a “myth.”
A recent report from the advocacy group Center for Climate Integrity said that recycling plastics failed because it was too expensive to do on a large scale, with the recycling rate for plastic estimated to only be 5% or 6% as of 2021.
