Dems Subpoena ExxonMobil, Chevron Execs, Say They Concealed Climate-Related Evidence
The House Oversight Committee's chairwoman subpoenaed the top executives of ExxonMobil, Chevron and other oil enterprises Tuesday amid accusations that the companies failed to turn over needed documents for an investigation, the Associated Press reported.
The probe is looking to uncover whether the oil industry concealed evidence about the perils of global warming.
Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, the chairwoman, said that she made efforts to get the documents from the oil giants voluntarily, but "the oil companies employed the same tactics they used for decades on climate policy — delay and obstruction.''
In a high-profile hearing last week, top oil executives denied allegations that they had circulated false information about climate change. They also pushed back against Maloney and other Democrats who accused them of purposefully misinforming the public about the risks associated with global warming, the AP reported.
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, one of the executives who testified at the hearing, said that the statements and information on climate the company had provided to the public "are and have always been truthful, fact-based ... and consistent" with the science available on climate issues. Democrats challenged the claim, according to the AP.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
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.
Several lawmakers compared the 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 products 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.
