Unsure about climate change? Watch out: You may be risking jail.
It starts with the Justice Department eyeing legal action against fossil-fuel companies for questioning climate-science claims.
“We have received information” about certain allegations and “have referred it to the FBI,” US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a Senate hearing Wednesday.
In January, Justice asked the FBI to see if a racketeering probe of ExxonMobil — presumably a criminal one — is warranted.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is also after the company.
Climate-change activists, including some lawmakers, claim ExxonMobil’s research years ago showed that fossil fuels contribute to global warming — but that it kept that info secret and misled investors.
But the idea is patently ludicrous.
Fact is, climate-change science is still quite primitive. Neither Exxon nor anyone else has ever had definitive proof of anything about climate change.
As for the company keeping dark secrets, even the anti-fossil-fuel New York Times admitted Exxon “published extensive research over decades that largely lined up with mainstream climatology.”
No, the legal threats are a warning to dissenters: Shut up, or risk legal armageddon.
(Plus, prosecutors might squeeze billions from the company along the way.)
It all adds up to an outrageous attack on free speech — and a pander to ideologues.
Testing assumptions is at the core of science, and Americans have a right to say whatever they want. If the true believers don’t like dissent, they’re equally free to refute it. If they can.