D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine is suing fossil fuel companies Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron and Shell “for systematically and intentionally misleading District consumers about the role their products play in causing climate change,” his office announced Thursday.

The lawsuit stems from a multiyear, multistate effort by a group of mostly Democratic attorneys general to hold energy companies responsible for allegedly concealing the role their products play in causing climate change.

“Major players in the fossil fuel industry knew as early as the 1950s that emissions from burning oil and gas posed an existential threat to humanity — and in response, the companies embarked on a multi-decade, multi-million-dollar public relations campaign to foment doubt and hostility towards climate research in order to protect profits,” says a press release announcing the suit.

Racine’s office is pursuing the matter as a consumer protection case, said attorney Kate Konopka, deputy attorney general in the office’s public advocacy division, during a conference call Thursday.

“The harm comes to consumers when they’re not given full and accurate information about the purchases they’re making,” Konopka said.

D.C.’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA) is the city’s main defense against deceptive marketing tactics. The suit charges the companies with violating the CPPA by allegedly carrying out a communications campaign to undermine climate change science, exaggerating their commitments to reducing carbon emissions, and “obscuring the damaging impact their products have on the environment.”

Racine compared oil and gas companies’ public relations efforts to those used by the tobacco industry.

“The companies not only employed the Advancement of Sound Science Coalition — a fake grassroots citizen group created by Big Tobacco as part of the industry’s misinformation campaign — they also funded and promoted some of the same scientists hired by tobacco companies,” says a press release.

The D.C. attorney general says his office has been investigating the companies for roughly three years, and has closely followed similar lawsuits brought against Exxon and other oil and gas entities in other states. Minnesota’s attorney general sued Exxon, Koch Industries and an energy trade group Wednesday, accusing them of obscuring the effects of climate change. New York’s attorney general sued Exxon in 2018, saying the company deceived shareholders with similar tactics.

Conservative- and free market-leaning think tanks and law groups have criticized the so-called “climate fraud” suits against oil and gas companies, describing them as crusades fueled by liberal activists and wealthy Democrats, including former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Last year, Racine’s office posted a solicitation on Twitter seeking a senior lawyer, junior lawyer and a paralegal for a five-year contract specifically focused on investigating and potentially suing Exxon. The contract comes with a budget of $26 million over five years, with an option to extend.

Asked by a reporter why his office is filing the suit now, when similar allegations have been circulating for years, Racine acknowledged the long process of cobbling together a complaint.

“We have to be careful before we bring a suit,” Racine said. “Nonetheless, we think that the facts of the case, consistent with our investigation to date, will substantiate the complaint and the allegations that we brought today.”

Representatives for Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron and Shell did not immediately return WAMU’s requests for comment.

In response to the lawsuit filed this week in Minnesota, an Exxon spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal the complaint is “part of a coordinated, politically motivated campaign” to attack energy companies.

“We look forward to defending the company in court,” the spokesperson added.