California Attorney General Rob Bonta
BEAUMONT, TEXAS — California Attorney General Rob Bonta can't escape a lawsuit from ExxonMobil accusing the state attorney general of improperly smearing the energy company's name as part of a "lawfare" campaign coordinated with environmental activists to extract a big payout from ExxonMobil over alleged "deception" related to its plastic recycling operations.
On Feb. 13, U.S. District Judge Michael J. Truncale, in the Eastern District of Texas, agreed that Bonta couldn't use his office or jurisdictional questions to shield him from ExxonMobil's lawsuit, in part because Bonta made some of the statements as part of an effort to raise money for his political campaign from would-be Texas donors.
"If Bonta wants to fundraise in Texas, he can answer to courts in Texas," Truncale said in the ruling.
The decision means ExxonMobil will be allowed to continue pressing its claims against the California Democrat for the claims Bonta made in interviews and campaign mailers and emails accusing ExxonMobil of lying about the success and future prospects of its so-called "advanced recycling" systems.
ExxonMobil had filed that lawsuit in January 2025, in federal court in Beaumont, Texas, about 85 miles east of the company's corporate headquarters in Houston. The lawsuit named Bonta as an individual defendant, along with California-based activist organizations, the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay Inc., Baykeeper Inc. and the Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund.
That lawsuit, in turn, had come about three months after Bonta and the environmental activist organizations lodged separate, but similar lawsuits against ExxonMonbil in California state court in San Francisco.
Those lawsuits demanded ExxonMobil be made to pay for allegedly misleading consumers and governments about the virtues of plastic recycling.
Specifically, the lawsuits took aim at ExxonMobil's claims concerning the benefits and effectiveness of its so-called "advanced recycling" systems.
ExxonMobil has proclaimed its chemical "advanced recycling" process, which the company says it "pioneered," will revolutionize recycling efforts in the U.S. and beyond, allowing a wide array of plastic products, which traditionally have been difficult or impossible to recycle, to be broken down and reformed into other useable goods "essential to our modern way of life."
Bonta and environmental activists, however, have asserted those claims are overblown, at best.
In the lawsuits, Bonta and his activist allies said ExxonMobil has "deceived Californians" and others "for more than half a century by promising recycling could and would solve the ever-growing plastic waste crisis."
However, they asserted ExxonMobil has known all along that even its "advanced recycling" process would "never be able to process more than a tiny fraction of the plastic waste it produces."
In its lawsuit, ExxonMobil says it is not countersuing the California attorney general or the activists for filing their lawsuits, nor seeking to hold Bonta accountable somehow for his official actions or criticisms of the company.
Rather, ExxonMobil said it is taking aim at statements made by Bonta and the activists that went beyond official criticism, and amounted to illegal defamation, costing it business from partners who would otherwise have supported the company's new recycling ventures.
They particularly pointed to statements Bonta made in interviews and on social media accusing ExxonMobil of a "decades-long campaign of deception" and stating: "ExxonMobil lied" about recycling.
And ExxonMobil asserted activists have accused the company of "polluting with impunity" and even of "homicide." They pointed to statements from San Francisco Baykeeper Executive Director Sejal Choksi-Chugh, who said "ExxonMobil's plastic polymers are poisoning waterways, wildlife, and people' and that 'this stuff is killing us a little bit more every day.'"
The complaint asserts the lawsuit from Bonta, in particular, represents an abrupt about face from the California state government, which for decades had served as one of the leading promoters of recycling of all kinds, including plastics, in the U.S.
In the complaint, ExxonMobil asserts the sudden change from Bonta was not in good faith, but rather the result of foreign influence, allegedly particularly from an Australian billionaire, identified as Andrew Forrest, who has led ventures that allegedly are in competition with ExxonMobil.
In response, Bonta and the environmental groups all sought to have the case dismissed. They asserted ExxonMobil can't sue them in Texas court for actions and statements they may have made in California.
And Bonta further asserted he can't be sued at all, because he claimed his actions and statements were made in his official role as California Attorney General.
Truncale agreed that his court couldn't exercise jurisdiction over the environmental groups and dismissed those claims.
But the judge said the same could not be said for at least three particular statements made by Bonta.
The judge said those three statements were made directly assailing ExxonMobil's advanced recycling systems, which operate in Texas; relied on Texas sources; or were made as part of an effort to solicit campaign donations, including from residents of Texas.
Thus, the judge said, the statements are enough to both establish personal jurisdiction in Texas and knock down Bonta's claims to official immunity, because the statements were not made solely in the course of his official duties, but rather as a candidate for office raising money.
"The outcome may be different for statements made in press conferences; an elected official can make statements communicating his office’s activities, with an unspoken expectation that later on he will receive campaign donations as a result," Truncale said.
"... It is a different matter entirely to make those statements and simultaneously request campaign contributions."
Further, the judge said questions remain as to whether Bonta made statements that he knew were false, as ExxonMobil has alleged.
In the decision, the judge also granted permission to the three Texas cities of Beaumont, Baytown and Mont Belvieu to join the case against Bonta, as well, as they seek to defend their interests in the action. All three cities claimed Bonta's alleged defamation "has disrupted (their) waste management and community recycling programs."
ExxonMobil is represented in the Texas lawsuit by attorneys Michael P. Cash and Wade T. Howard, of the firm of Liskow & Lewis, of Houston.
