TEXAS SHOWDOWN OFF AS JUDGE THROWS AG SHADE
Ruling sends Healey-Exxon beef to N.Y.
Exxon Mobil has lost home court advantage in its legal tussling with Attorney General Maura Healey, but it didn’t come without some serious questions from the bench.
A Texas judge overseeing the lawsuit the oil giant brought against Healey and her New York counterpart tossed the case to a Manhattan federal courtroom last week, moving it out of a venue Healey has long argued was wrong for the case. The federal judge, Ed Kinkeade — who once ordered Healey to personally appear in his courtroom — seemed to come around to that argument, writing that picking the new venue was in the “interest of justice.”
Three cheers for Healey, right?
Kinkeade may have finally loosened his grip on the case, but he bid it farewell with a 12-page ruling dripping with skepticism and thinly veiled support for Exxon Mobil’s claims that Healey’s climate change investigation into the company is politically motivated.
Kinkeade pointed to emails, media statements and an agreement Healey and New York AG Eric Schneiderman signed that he said “causes the Court to further question if the attorneys general are trying to hide something.”
“The Court recognizes the authority of the attorneys general to conduct their respective investigations,” he wrote, “however, the Court also recognizes how the attorneys general have conveniently cherry-picked what they share with the media about their investigations.”
He didn’t stop there. In reinforcing its claims, Exxon has pointed to Healey’s appearance at a New York press conference in March 2016, where she discussed Exxon and weeks later sought a civil investigative demand.
Kinkeade writes that “the attorneys general say now (our emphasis added) that they are investigating Exxon because of two different periodicals published in the fall of 2015.”
“The Court is uncertain if it is common practice for attorneys general to begin to investigate a company after reading an article that accuses a company of possibly committing wrongdoing decades ago,” Kinkeade wrote.
Judging by his past rulings, Kinkeade has routinely questioned Healey’s arguments, so the language has to be taken in context. And for Healey, that makes the change of venue to the Southern District of New York all the more important.
But Kinkeade’s tone is difficult to ignore — largely because it reads like something Exxon attorneys themselves could have written.
The more you know
Who knew that General Electric’s Manufacturing Showcase would show off more than, well, manufacturing?
You can thank GE Ventures CEO Sue Siegel for that, after she tucked in more than a few interesting tidbits about members of the panel:
• Travis McCready, CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, played varsity hoops at Yale for four years and has the season record for most personal fouls (110 in 1989-1990) and the career record as well (360 from 19871991), she told the crowd.
But don’t label McCready just a hacker, though. He also led team in rebounding and field goal percentage his final season.
• Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, had an obsession growing up for tropical fish. He got his first job at Wet Pet, and he could recite the Latin names for 100 fish in the store.
• John Barros, the city’s chief of economic development, apparently is an avid drummer, and, according to Siegel, his favorite drummer is (drum roll please) ... Slash of Guns N’ Roses.
Now, if you’re scratching your head like us — and know your late-1980s rock — you know Slash was a guitarist. Siegal was apparently making a joke. (Cue the rimshot!)
Barros’ real favorite drummer is Clyde Stubblefield, best known as the drummer for James Brown, who died in February.