# ExxonMobil The largest US oil major (CEO Darren Woods), heir to Standard Oil's biggest fragment. Aligned with Trump on deregulation but repeatedly off-script: Woods publicly urged Trump to stay in the [[Paris Agreement]] (ignored), and at a January 2026 White House meeting called Venezuela "uninvestable" — prompting Trump to call Exxon "too cute" and threaten to shut it out. Retreating from low-carbon ventures toward core oil and gas, targeting +$25B earnings growth by 2030. ## Climate Deception Litigation Exxon is the lead defendant in roughly two dozen U.S. climate liability cases in which counties, cities and states seek to recover a share of climate adaptation costs. Its consistent defense is a [[Corporate Free Speech]] argument: that its ads, op-eds and public appearances discouraging climate action were not *deceptive* but *persuasive* — petitioning statements protected as political speech rather than [[Commercial Speech]] subject to false-advertising law. - **Massachusetts.** Attorney General [[Maura Healey]] sued on 24 October 2019 for deceptive advertising and investor deception. Exxon invoked the state anti-SLAPP statute, explicitly to avoid discovery; the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejected the attempt on 24 May 2022 (*Commonwealth v. Exxon Mobil Corp.*, SJC-13211), holding the statute inapplicable to attorney-general enforcement actions. The case remains active in Superior Court as of early 2026. - **Colorado.** Exxon and Suncor are the defendants in [[Boulder County v. Suncor Energy]] (No. 25-170), which the Supreme Court took up on 23 February 2026 with argument set for 5 October 2026. The questions presented are preemption and jurisdiction, but amici are pressing the First Amendment theory directly. The lineage matters: the corporate-speech framework Exxon now relies on was built in the early 1970s by [[Mobil Oil]], its own merger partner, under [[Herbert Schmertz]] and [[Rawleigh Warner Jr.]]. > Status: expand further with the #ExxonKnew internal-science record, the Guyana arbitration loss to [[Chevron]], and lobbying footprint. ## See Also - [[Energy Sector]] - [[Standard Oil]] · [[Climate in Right-Wing Thought Hub]] - [[Mobil Oil]] — the merger partner that invented the corporate-speech argument - [[Corporate Free Speech]] — the litigation defense - [[The Climate Denial Machine]] — the conduct at issue