Attorneys General Launch State Investigations Of Exxon, As Congressmen Request Federal Probe State Attorneys General Are Investigating Whether Exxon Deceived Shareholders And The Public To Protect Its Profits. Reports from InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times revealed that Exxon’s own scientists had confirmed by the early 1980s that fossil fuel pollution was causing climate change, yet Exxon funded organizations that helped manufacture doubt about the causes of climate change for decades afterward.