Exxon Mobile is under investigation for potentially lying for decades about what it knew about climate change.

Last week, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued a subpoena to the oil giant,

looking into the gaps between Exxon's own scientific findings on the real threats of climate change,

and its tens of millions of

dollars of funding to sham think tanks devoted to denying the man-made roots of global warming.

Schneiderman spoke with PBS's front line this week.

Were they using the best science and the most competent models for their own purposes,

but then telling the public regulators and shareholders that no competent models existed?

We're interested in what they were using internally and what they were telling the world.

The query comes after reports this fall from the website Inside Climate News, which found that as far back as 1977, Exxon's own scientists had warned that the

burning of fossil fuels, the company's own product, would warm the planet and endanger

humanity.

After roughly a decade of funding White Hat, state-of-the-art research, the company pivoted in

the late 80s to bankrolling efforts

to cast doubt on climate change and campaigned against emissions cutting legislation,

including U.S. participation in the Kyoto Protocol.

The L.A. Times and The Guardian came to similar conclusions.

Lawmakers have also called for federal investigations from

the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. ExxonMobil says it rejects

the allegations. Observers, including myself on this show, have noted parallels to Big Tobacco's

decades-long campaign of misinformation on the effects of smoking,

for which companies are still paying out a $25-year $246 billion settlement.

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