• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Coastal GasLink Cost Skyrockets 70% to $11.2B August 2, 2022
Ottawa Releases Regulatory ‘Frame’ for Net-Zero Grid by 2035 August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

Top U.S. Oil Execs Deny Misleading Public About Climate Change

November 1, 2021
Reading time: 4 minutes

GFDL/Wikimedia Commons

GFDL/Wikimedia Commons

12
SHARES
 

Top executives from oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and Shell denied they had engaged in campaigns to mislead the public about climate change, as they testified under oath before the U.S. Congress’s main investigative committee last week. 

Instead, during the six-hour landmark hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee, the fossil giants insisted they had made efforts to transition to clean energy. It is worth noting, as the Washington Post did, that the oil execs, as well as representatives of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agreed to testify only after Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) threatened to haul them in under subpoena.

The tone of the hearing was occasionally scathing.

“I need Chevron to cut the check. You owe $50 billion to Indigenous communities and people that you harmed for profit,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) told Chevron CEO Michael Wirth.

“It’s not lost on me that we are having a hearing today surrounding fossil fuel misinformation and disinformation campaigns on the same day that we are scheduled to vote on legislation that has been deeply influenced by the lobbying efforts of the fossil fuel industry,” added Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Not available at the hearing were reams of documents relevant to the question of the oil industry’s involvement in spreading disinformation and impeding climate action, which the Democrats had spent months leading up to the inquiry trying to secure.

At the end of the marathon hearing, subcommittee chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) said she would be issuing subpoenas for these documents, The Associated Press reports.

Heated writes that the forthcoming orders “will force Big Oil to provide information on companies’ payments to ‘shadow groups’ that promote climate denial”, as well as their contracts with more than 150 public relations companies that Maloney says may have helped the companies spread climate misinformation.

The subpoenas “will also seek funding information for Big Oil’s social media advertisements,” and “board materials the committee needs to examine corporate strategies on climate change,” Heated adds. 

In his submission to the subcommittee, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said the company “has long acknowledged the reality and risks of climate change, and it has devoted significant resources to addressing those risks.” (Certainly, Exxon has long understood the risks posed to its immediate bottom line, with this summer’s revelations about its $5 million anti-Biden Facebook ad campaign in 2020 being part of the latest in a very long history of putting its profit ahead of the planet.) 

The oil giant’s public statements on climate “are and have always been truthful, fact-based … and consistent” with mainstream climate science, Woods said.

Chevron CEO Wirth echoed that assertion, declaring that “any suggestion that Chevron has engaged in an effort to spread disinformation and mislead the public on these complex issues is simply wrong.”

The Democrats at the hearing (the committee is composed of 25 Democrats, 20 Republicans) “immediately challenged” this narrative, writes AP. When Maloney retorted that the fossil CEOs “are obviously lying like the tobacco executives were,” the news agency explains, she was referring to a 1994 hearing with tobacco executives who famously testified that they didn’t believe nicotine was addictive.

Ocasio-Cortez observed to the assembled CEOs that  “what is often lost in these conversations is that some of us have to actually live the future that you all are setting on fire for us.” Invoking projections that by 2038,  drought, fire, and heat trends could potentially make parts of the United States unlivable, she added: “We do not have the privilege or the luxury of lobbyist spin.”

Republican committee members accused Democrats of playing politics as their climate agenda “teeters in Congress,” writes AP, citing comment by the oversight panel’s top Republican, James Comer (R-KY), who declared that the hearing’s purpose was “clearly” to deliver “partisan theatre for prime time news.”

As Comer himself confirmed last August in his opening remarks during a hearing into the health impacts of climate change, he is hardly a disinterested party: he represents the first- and second-largest coal-producing counties in Kentucky, which is itself the fifth-highest coal producer in the country.  

Prior to declaring his own vested interest in ensuring that the fossil boat not be rocked, Comer invoked the declining mental health of children worried by climate change as reason to “move past doomsday scenarios and headlines and focus on the energy policy steps,” while bearing in mind their “costs and impacts” on fossil jobs and revenue losses.  

Comer said he feared that “a premature move away from fossil fuels, particularly for poorer areas, means that they will continue to have little access to the type of cheap, reliable energy that enables economic growth, that allows for the provision of clean water and sanitation, widespread vaccination, and preventative child health services.”

Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH) declared it “shameful how the other side wants to demonize our oil and gas industry,” notes Grist, while Rep Bryon Donalds (R-FL) addressed the fossil CEOs directly: “I’m sorry for you, and I’m sorry for the people in our country who have to witness shenanigans like this.” 



in Climate & Society, Climate Denial & Greenwashing, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Coal, Ending Emissions, Energy Politics, Fossil Fuels, Health & Safety, International Security & War, Jobs & Training, Jurisdictions, Legal & Regulatory, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Bernard Spragg/flickr
Energy Politics

$12.3B in Profit over 3 Months as Big Fossils Reject Federal Emissions Cap

August 11, 2022
245
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons
Hydrogen

Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts

August 11, 2022
287
Protect The Planet
Pipelines / Rail Transport

Trans Mountain Work Site Blocks Early Salmon Run on Coquihalla River, Local Observers Say

August 11, 2022
375

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Bernard Spragg/flickr

$12.3B in Profit over 3 Months as Big Fossils Reject Federal Emissions Cap

August 11, 2022
245
Σ64/Wikimedia Commons

Global Push for Hydrogen Sidesteps Knowledge Gaps on Climate Impacts

August 11, 2022
287
Protect The Planet

Trans Mountain Work Site Blocks Early Salmon Run on Coquihalla River, Local Observers Say

August 11, 2022
375
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

August 2, 2022
1.5k
Joseph Brent/Flickr

Green Hydrogen Will Cost Less than Fossil-Fuelled ‘Blue’, Shell CEO Admits

August 7, 2022
746
Early stages of construction on the Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor in France

Failing French Nuclear Plants Drive Up Electricity Costs as Heat Waves Cut Production

August 8, 2022
451

Recent Posts

Focus Blame for Climate Change on Fossils and Governments, Ecoanalytics Advises

August 11, 2022
125
TheKurgan/Wikipedia

Ontario Pension Giant May Be Getting the Memo on Fossil Divestment, Members Say

August 11, 2022
33
@stan_sdcollins/Twitter

Stranded Communities Hope for Emergency Food Supplies as Newfoundland Wildfires Rage

August 11, 2022
14
Maurizio Pesce/Wikimedia Commons

Tesla Lobbying Points to Ontario as Possible EV Manufacturing Site

August 11, 2022
34
MENA/Flickr

Ontario Gains from U.S. EV Tax Credit, But Plans No Incentives for Local Drivers

August 11, 2022
37
Twitter

Shelling of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Plant Raises Fears for Nuclear Safety

August 11, 2022
32
Next Post
andreas160578/Pixabay

Duelling Reports Show Canada with G20’s Highest Fossil Subsidies, but Solid Plan to Meet 2030 Climate Target

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}