Democratic lawmakers in the United States demanded on Thursday that the CEOs of four major fossil-fuel corporations and lobbying firms testify in the coming months about whether the companies conspired to mislead the public and stymie efforts to combat climate change.
House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and Ro Khanna, chairman of the Subcommittee on the Environment, sent letters to the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp, BP United States of America, and Royal Dutch Shell Oil Co, asking them to appear before a hearing on Oct. 28 and offer emails and documents.
Additionally, they despatched the requests, first through the New York Times, to the heads of two lobbying businesses: the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Chamber of commerce.
“I plan to get to the bottom of how fossil gas groups have raked in trillions of dollars of earnings at the expense of our planet and our health, all even as they spread doubt and disinformation about the dangers of fossil fuels,” Maloney stated via a spokesperson.
The letter cited a look in the peer-reviewed journal Climatic Exchange that stated ninety-one think tanks and advocacy businesses that downplayed global warming had been funded by Exxon and other enterprise organizations.
The requests come months after a video surfaced in June, in which an Exxon lobbyist said https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-enterprise/exxon-lobbyist-duped-by using-greenpeace-says-climate-policy-changed into-ploy-ceo-condemns-2021-06-30 The employer’s public guide for a tax on carbon became a ruse due to the fact that the plan to lower weather exchange would in no way benefit enough political support to be adopted. The day the pictures aired, Darren Woods, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive, condemned the lobbyist’s feedback.
The requests come as Democrats seek to pass weather measures in a massive financial reconciliation invoice, a number of which fossil gas interests oppose due to the fact that they might add fees to drilling and mining.
Exxon said it’s going to preserve to speak with staff at the committee about its requests. Chevron said it changed into reviewing the committee’s letter.
Shell stated that it looks forward to working with the committee and assisting in the transition to a lower-carbon future.
BP stated it received the letter and is advocating for guidelines that support the transition to an emissions-free global economy by 2050.
API spokesperson Bethany Aronhalt said her corporation welcomes the opportunity to testify and “improve our priorities of pricing carbon, regulating methane and reliably generating American strength.”
A spokesperson for the Chamber of commerce stated the organisation believes that inaction on weather change is not an option and that it’s been operating with lawmakers on solutions, “most substantially” inside the bipartisan infrastructure invoice.
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