Exxon tried to protect its fossil fuel business by downplaying climate change

Internal Exxon documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal span Rex Tillerson’s tenure as the company’s chief executive from 2006 until 2016.

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Executives at ExxonMobil continued in recent years to raise doubts internally about the dangers of climate change and the need to cut back on oil and gas use, even though the company had previously conceded publicly that burning fossil fuels contributes to global warming, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The effort to minimize concerns about climate change under former chief executive Rex Tillerson, who led Exxon from 2006 until 2016, was happening at the same time that scientists at the company were modeling troubling increases in carbon dioxide emissions without big reductions in fossil fuel consumption, the Journal reported. The newspaper cited internal company documents that were part of a New York state lawsuit and interviews with former executives.

Exxon, along with other oil and gas companies, is a defendant in multiple state and local lawsuits that accuse it of misleading the public about climate change and the dangers of fossil fuels.

Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, a group that is trying to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their role in driving climate change, says the documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal are likely to be used against Exxon in court.

“As communities pay an ever-greater price for our worsening climate crisis, it’s more clear than ever that Exxon must be held accountable to pay for the harm it has caused,” Wiles said in a statement.

Earlier investigations found Exxon worked for decades to sow confusion about climate change, even though its own…