California's Democratic Attorney General, Rob Bonta, struggled to defend his lawsuit against ExxonMobil during an appearance on CNBC's “Squawk Box” on Tuesday.
Bonta's office filed suit against ExxonMobil on Monday, alleging that the company has engaged in litigation over the effectiveness of its plastic recycling efforts, specifically,Advanced Recycling“The program basically breaks down old plastic into its molecular components, which can then be used to make other products. During the interview, Bonta struggled to defend the legitimacy of the lawsuit, citing the “Climate Week New York”Summit. (RELATED: Officials told Biden administration's EPA its aggressive green power plant plan has serious flaws, documents reveal)
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“They're lying in a lot of different ways. They're basically saying that plastic in the United States is 100% recyclable, and that's the myth that they wanted to perpetuate,” Bonta said in response to a question from a CNBC anchor.
After some more back and forth, Bonta continued to try to explain the lawsuit against ExxonMobil.
“Only 1% of the plastics that ExxonMobil produces go through advanced recycling processes from their products, and of that 1%, 92% ends up primarily as transportation fuels,” Bonta said. “So the plastics that ExxonMobil produces and the remaining 99% of the plastics produced in the world don't go through advanced recycling.”
“But I think advanced recycling is better than nothing and better than having it end up in a landfill,” CNBC host Becky Quick interjected.
“They're doing advanced recycling that turns things into jet fuel that goes into the atmosphere, or into transportation fuel that becomes part of our lives, and they don't get any credit for that,” Bonta countered.
“So you're saying we shouldn't have jet fuel?” Quick responded.
“My point is, ExxonMobil shouldn't be lying. And they shouldn't be coming up with new lies,” Bonta said, before CNBC host Joe Kernen interrupted him to point out the irony of Bonta's slamming jet fuel after flying to New York City to attend a climate summit attended by many of the business and political elite.
“But you flew here?” Curnen asked.
“We travel,” Bonta replied.
If Bonta were to fly round trip from Sacramento to New York City to attend Climate Week, he would fly about 5,000 miles and emit about 2.26 tons of carbon dioxide. According to Based on calculations done by Sustainable Travel.
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