Tuesday, November 02, 2021

USA
‘Code red for climate’: House Oversight Committee chair ramps up pressure on Big Oil executives for documents




Carolyn Maloney
Josh Marcus
Tue, November 2, 2021

Congress has subpoenaed many of the top fossil fuel companies in the world, as well as the trade groups that represent them, as part of its investigation into how the industry kept the public from learning about the climate crisis.

On Tuesday, representative Carolyn B Maloney, chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, requested reams of internal documents from ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP America, Shell, as well as the American Petroleum Institute and US Chamber of Commerce, saying the firms and trade groups hadn’t been cooperating with Congress’ investigation.

“For far too long, Big Oil has escaped accountability for its central role in bringing our planet to the brink of a climate catastrophe,” Ms Maloney, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “That ends today.”


“We are at ‘code red’ for climate, and I am committed to doing everything I can to help rescue this planet for our children. We need to get to the bottom of the oil industry’s disinformation campaign. And with these subpoenas, we will,” Ms Maloney added in a statement.

The Independent has reached out to each recipient of the request, asking for comment.

“bp is carefully reviewing the subpoena and will continue working with the committee,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.

It’s the latest step in the groundbreaking inquiry into climate disinformation, after last week’s high-profile hearings with fossil fuel executives at the Capitol, which some have compared to the famed 1994 hearings when tobacco executives were grilled about the health consequences of cigarettes.

At the more recent hearings, however, the executives did not commit to stop lobbying against climate policies, or apologise for sowing public doubt about climate science.

Documents have shown that firms like Exxon and Shell knew about global warming for decades before it became a top public priority, and funded trade groups or ran advertisements of their own that cast doubt on the nature of carbon emissions as a threat.

SCIENTISTS SAID GLOBAL WARMING WAS IN THE FUTURE WE WOULD KEEP PUMPING OIL TILL THEN
“That was consistent with what the scientific consensus was at the time,” ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said at the hearing, defending a set of ads in the early 2000s that were skeptical of global warming. “And as time has progressed, we’ve continued to maintain a position that has evolved with science and is today consistent with the science.”

Some Democratic members hammered the companies for the distance between their public attempts at going green and their behind-the-scenes work to stymie the types of radical changes to the energy sector needed to avoid the worst of the climate crisis.

“You will say your companies have contributed to academic research on climate science,” congressman Ro Khanna of California said. “That is true, but that is not the issue at hand. Despite your early knowledge of climate science, your companies and the trade associations you fund chose time and again to loudly raise doubts about the science and downplay the severity of the crisis.”

Others praised the firm, with Republican representative Jim Jordan of Ohio saying, “God bless Chevron for saying they’ll increase production.”

Elsewhere in Congress, Democrats are in the midst of negotiating on two major infrastructure and spending packages, and while they represent the biggest investments in climate action in history, environmentalists also note that Democratic US Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, large recipients of pharmaceutical and fossil fuel money, respectively, have opposed key measures that would’ve made the bills even more impactful on the rapidly deteriorating climate.

Mr Manchin, for example, is against the clean power plant plan that’s a key part of the Democrats’ climate push, incentivising utilities to rapidly move away from using fossil energy.

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Democratic chair issues subpoenas to oil executives


DRep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, speaks at committee hearing on the role of fossil fuel companies in climate change, 
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)More

MATTHEW DALY
AP
Tue, November 2, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas Tuesday to top executives of ExxonMobil, Chevron and other oil giants, charging that the companies have not turned over documents needed by the committee to investigate allegations that the oil industry concealed evidence about the dangers of global warming.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said she tried hard to obtain the information voluntarily, but "the oil companies employed the same tactics they used for decades on climate policy — delay and obstruction.''

The subpoenas follow a high-profile hearing last week in which top oil executives denied spreading disinformation about climate change as they sparred with Maloney and other Democrats over allegations that they deliberately misled the public about the risks of global warming.

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods testified that his company's public statements on climate “are and have always been truthful, fact-based ... and consistent” with mainstream climate science, a claim Democrats sharply disputed.

In addition to ExxonMobil, the committee issued subpoenas to executives at Chevron, Shell and BP America, as well as the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Leaders of all six groups appeared at the Oversight hearing last week.


Spokesman Casey Norton said Tuesday that ExxonMobil has been cooperating with the committee for months and has provided nearly 130,000 pages of documents, including internal emails.

J.P. Fielder, a spokesman for BP America, said the company is carefully reviewing the subpoena and will continue working with the committee. BP says it has provided more than 17,000 pages of documents, including internal materials.

Several lawmakers compared last week's remote hearing to a 1994 session with tobacco executives who famously testified that they didn’t believe nicotine was addictive. Maloney and other Democrats sought to pin down oil executives on whether they believe in climate change and that burning fossil fuels such as oil contributes to global warming.

Democrats accused the oil industry of engaging in a decades-long, industry-wide campaign to spread disinformation about the contribution of fossil fuels to global warming.

“They are obviously lying like the tobacco executives were,″ Maloney said of oil executives after hearing their testimony.


Republicans accused Democrats of grandstanding over an issue popular with their base as President Joe Biden’s climate agenda teeters in Congress. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the panel's top Republican, dismissed the hearing as "partisan theater for primetime news.''

Democrats for months have been seeking documents and other information on the oil industry’s role in stopping climate action over multiple decades. The fossil fuel industry has had scientific evidence about the dangers of climate change since at least 1977, yet spread denial and doubt about the harm its pro

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woodsducts cause— undermining science and preventing meaningful action on climate change, Maloney and other Democrats said.

Woods and other oil executives said they agreed with Maloney on the existence and threat posed by climate change, but they refused her request to pledge that their companies would not spend money — either directly or indirectly — to oppose efforts to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

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