SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California sued ExxonMobil Monday, alleging the oil giant deceived the public for half a century by promising that the plastics it produced would be recycled.
Attorney General Rob Bonta's office said that less than 5% of plastic is recycled into another plastic product in the U.S. even though the items are labeled as “recyclable.” As a result, landfills and oceans are filled with plastic waste, creating a global pollution crisis, while consumers diligently place plastic water bottles and other containers into recycling bins, the lawsuit alleges.
“'Buy as much as you want, no problem, it’ll be recycled,' they say. Lies, and they aim to make us feel less guilty about our waste if we recycle it,” said Bonta, a Democrat, at a virtual news conference, where he was joined by representatives of environmental groups that filed a separate but similar lawsuit Monday, also in San Francisco County Superior Court.
“The end goal is to drive people to buy, buy, buy and to drive ExxonMobil’s profits up, up, up,” he said.
ExxonMobil, one of the world's largest producers of plastics, blamed California for its flawed recycling system.
"For decades, California officials have known their recycling system isn’t effective. They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills,” Lauren Kight, spokesperson for ExxonMobil, said in an email.
Dozens of U.S. municipalities as well as eight states and Washington, D.C., have sued oil and gas companies in recent years over their role in climate change, according to the Center for Climate Integrity. Those are still making their way through courts, including a lawsuit filed by California a year ago against some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, claiming they deceived the public about the risks of fossil fuels.
The lawsuit announced Monday stems from an investigation Bonta’s office launched in April 2022 into the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries, which included issuing subpoenas that revealed previously hidden documents, Bonta's office said.
The complaint alleges violations of California's nuisance and unfair competition laws and alleges ExxonMobil concealed the harms caused by plastics.
It was filed a day after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a statewide ban on all plastic shopping bags at supermarkets.
Notre Dame Law School professor Bruce Huber, who specializes in environmental, natural resources and energy law, said the state faces an uphill battle in its suit against ExxonMobil despite evidence that plastic manufacturers “have not been forthright” about the challenges of turning old plastics into new items.
“The state’s primary claim relies on public nuisance, a notoriously murky area of law. It could be difficult for a court to grant California relief here without opening a Pandora’s box of other, similar claims,” he said by email.
ExxonMobil knew that plastic is “extremely costly and difficult to eradicate” and that plastic disintegrates into harmful microplastics, yet it promoted recycling as a key solution through news and social media platforms, according to the state's lawsuit.
At the same time, it ramped up production of plastics, the lawsuit states.
Lately ExxonMobil has been promoting “advanced recycling” or “chemical recycling,” saying the process will better turn old plastics into new products, the lawsuit states, when only 8% of materials do so.
The ExxonMobil spokesperson said advanced recycling works.
The state hopes to compel ExxonMobil to end its deceptive practices and to secure an abatement fund and civil penalties for the harm.
Bonta said the contents of the lawsuit will stun many who have purchased products made from recycled materials and who have placed plastic products in blue recycling bins.
“This is a revelation to many, after years and years of a belief that is untrue because they were lied to by ExxonMobil ... about the myth of recycling,” he said.
FILE - California Attorney General Rob Bonta fields questions during a press conference Monday, Aug. 28, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
FILE - An ExxonMobil fuel storage and distribution facility in Irving, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The man accused in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note detailing his plans to kill the former president and kept in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the Justice Department said Monday.
Trump complained that the current holding charges against the man were too light, but prosecutors indicated much more serious charges were coming.
The new allegations about the note were included in a detention memo filed ahead of a hearing Monday at which federal prosecutors argued that Ryan Wesley Routh should remain locked up as a flight risk and a threat to public safety. U.S. Magistrate Ryon McCabe agreed, saying the “weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong” and ordered him to stay behind bars.
The latest details were meant to bolster the Justice Department's contention that the 58-year-old suspect had engaged in a premeditated plan to kill Trump, a plot officials say was thwarted by a Secret Service agent who spotted a rifle poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing and then opened fire in Routh's direction.
The note describing Routh's plans was placed in a box that he dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after last Sunday's arrest, prosecutors said.
The box also contained ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, tools, phones and various letters. The person who received the box and contacted law enforcement was not identified in the Justice Department's detention memo and was described only as a “civilian witness.”
One note Routh left, addressed “Dear World,” appears to have been premised on the idea that the assassination attempt would be unsuccessful.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job,” the note said, according to prosecutors.
The letter offers “substantial evidence of his intent,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Dispoto said in court Monday.
"That's the message he wanted to send to the world in advance of this incident” he said.
In a statement, Trump accused the Justice Department of “mishandling and downplaying” the apparent assassination attempt by bringing charges that were a “slap on the wrist.”
Routh is currently charged with illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina, and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. But Dispoto said in court Monday that prosecutors would pursue additional charges before a grand jury accusing him of having tried to “assassinate a major political candidate” — charges that would warrant life in prison in the event of a conviction.
It is common for prosecutors to file more easily provable charges as an immediate placeholder before adding more significant allegations as the case proceeds.
Trump also claimed that the Justice Department has a conflict of interest in prosecuting this case since, under the supervision of a special counsel, it is simultaneously pursuing cases charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election and with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He signaled support for a separate state-level criminal investigation announced last week by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Kristy Militello, an assistant federal public defender representing Routh, asked during Monday's hearing for Routh to be permitted to live with his sister in Greensboro, N.C., as the case moves forward. She argued that prosecutors had failed to show that he was a threat to the community and noted his track record of habitually showing up for court appearance throughout decades of legal troubles,
Besides the note, prosecutors also cited cellphone records indicating that Routh traveled to West Palm Beach from Greensboro in mid-August, and that he was near Trump’s golf club and the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence “on multiple days and times” between August 18 and the day of the apparent attempted assassination.
He was arrested on September 15 after a Secret Service agent who was scoping the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a partially obscured man's face, and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, aimed directly at him. The agent fired at Routh, who sped away before being stopped by officials in a neighboring county, leaving behind a loaded rifle, digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag that was hanging from a chain link fence.
The FBI has previously said Routh had camped outside the golf course for 12 hours before his arrest. The Secret Service has said Routh did not fire any shots and never had Trump in his line of sight.
The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched his car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.
They also found a list with dates in August, September and October and venues where Trump had appeared or was scheduled to, according to prosecutors. A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.
In addition, the detention memo cites a book authored by Routh last year in which he lambasted Trump's approach to foreign policy, including in Ukraine. In the book, he wrote that Iran was “free to assassinate Trump” for having left the nuclear deal.
Tucker and Durkin Richer reported from Washington.
Department of Homeland Security officers patrol outside the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, where Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, suspected in an apparent assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump, will be attending a hearing, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Feds: Man accused in apparent assassination attempt wrote note indicating he intended to kill Trump
Feds: Man accused in apparent assassination attempt wrote note indicating he intended to kill Trump
This photo provided by Hédi Aouidj shows Ryan Routh, a suspect in the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, in Maidan, Ukraine on April 10, 2024. (Hédi Aouidj via AP)
