is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home , a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals.
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ExxonMobil is suing California over state laws that compel large companies to share a more comprehensive picture of their greenhouse gas emissions, as well as disclose financial risks that climate change might pose to their investors.
The oil and gas company claims that the two laws in question aim to “embarrass” large corporations the state “believes are uniquely responsible for climate change” in order to push them to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. There is overwhelming scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels cause climate change by trapping heat on the planet.
ExxonMobil alleges that California is violating the First Amendment by setting specific standards for how certain companies report those emissions and the associated climate risks. Under laws the state passed in 2023, “ExxonMobil will be forced to describe its emissions and climate-related risks in terms the company fundamentally disagrees with,” a complaint filed Friday says. The suit asks a US District Court to stop the laws from being enforced.
It’s the latest in an ongoing saga over how transparent companies should be about their impact on the climate
It’s the latest in an ongoing saga over how transparent companies should be about their impact on the climate. California has set higher standards than many companies follow in their sustainability reports. That, plus the state’s enormous economy, has allowed it to raise the bar for corporate climate disclosures even as the federal government moves in the opposite direction. ExxonMobil’s accusations that the state is compelling corporations to adopt its views on climate change also follow a landslide of allegations that ExxonMobil has misled consumers about the impact its products would have on the environment.
One of the laws ExxonMobil is suing over, SB 253, requires companies doing business in California with more than $1 billion in annual revenue to disclose their emissions according to internationally recognized standards set in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. The company already publicly shares data on its greenhouse gas emissions, but says it disagrees with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s methods. The big tussle is over requirements to include emissions from a company’s supply chain, electricity use, and consumer use of its products — considered “indirect” emissions. Those indirect emissions often make up the majority of a company’s carbon footprint, and SB 253 would require full disclosure of them by 2027.
ExxonMobil’s suit, however, claims that including indirect emissions leads to double counting. It would mandate that the company claim tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks that burn their fuels, for example, while the owners of those vehicles might also claim those emissions in their reporting.
The other law in dispute, SB 261, says that companies earning more than $500 million in annual revenue need to disclose financial risks they face from climate change, such as how coastal flooding or more extreme weather might impact their business, by January 2026. The suit calls such disclosures “speculative,” requiring “the company to engage in granular conjecture about unknowable future developments.”
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