Lawmaker Threatens to Subpoena Exxon After Secret
Video
The chairman of a powerful House subcommittee said he
is seeking answers from Exxon and other oil and gas giants over their role in
spreading disinformation on climate change.
Hiroko
TabuchiLisa Friedman
By Hiroko
Tabuchi and Lisa Friedman
July 2,
2021
The
chairman of a House subcommittee is demanding that executives of Exxon Mobil
Corp., Shell, Chevron and other major oil and gas companies testify before
Congress about the industry’s decades-long effort to wage disinformation
campaigns around climate change.
Representative
Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, said Friday he was prepared to use subpoena
power to compel the companies to appear before lawmakers if they don’t do so
voluntarily.
The move
comes a day after a secretive video recording was made public in which a senior
Exxon lobbyist said the energy giant had fought climate science through “shadow
groups” and had targeted influential senators in an effort to weaken President
Biden’s climate agenda. Several of those senators said this week that the
lobbyist exaggerated their relationship or that they had no dealings with him.
“The video
was appalling,” Mr. Khanna said in an interview on Friday. He called it the
latest evidence of the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to “engage in climate
denialism and to manipulate public opinion and to exert undue influence in
shaping policy in Congress.”
Mr. Khanna
said the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on the Environment, which he
chairs, will issue letters next week to top executives at Exxon Mobil, Shell,
Chevron and other oil and gas companies and trade groups demanding documents
and testimony. One major target of the panel’s inquiry are dark money groups
that have been funded by fossil fuel companies to disseminate falsehoods about
climate science and policy solutions. The hearing is expected to be held in the
fall.
Representative
Carolyn B. Maloney, the New York Democrat who chairs the Oversight Committee,
said she was “very concerned by the new video evidence showing how Exxon
knowingly tried to block action to address climate change” and said she
intended to “hold Exxon and other companies accountable.” Only Ms. Maloney, as
chair of the full committee, is authorized to issue a subpoena.
So far, Mr.
Khanna said, oil and gas executives have resisted requests to appear before
Congress, unlike representatives from other industries. “I find it mind
boggling, honestly. Tech CEOs from my district have showed up. Wall Street
executives showed up many times to Congress. Pharmaceutical executives,” he
said. “We fully plan to issue subpoenas if they don’t come voluntarily.”
Officials
with Exxon Mobil and the other major oil companies did not immediately respond
to requests for comment Friday. Keith McCoy, the Exxon lobbyist in the video,
has not responded to several requests for comment.
After the
video recordings became public on Thursday, Darren Woods, Exxon’s chief
executive, released a statement that said Mr. McCoy’s remarks “in no way
represent the company’s position on a variety of issues, including climate
policy, and our firm commitment that carbon pricing is important to addressing
climate change.”
The video
was filmed in a sting operation by the environmental group Greenpeace UK, which
set up a sham recruitment interview with Mr. McCoy, Exxon’s senior director of
federal relations. In the video, Mr. McCoy describes how the company targeted a
number of influential senators with the aim of scaling back the climate
provisions in President Biden’s sweeping infrastructure bill by attacking the
tax increases that would pay for it. A bipartisan package that Mr. Biden agreed
to now leaves out many of the ideas the president initially had proposed to
reduce the burning of fossil fuels, which is the main driver of climate change.
Mr. McCoy
also said on the recording that Exxon’s support for a tax on carbon dioxide was
“a great talking point” for the oil company, but that he believes the tax will
never happen. A carbon tax is a fee on the carbon content of fossil fuels meant
to discourage emissions by making goods that are more polluting to manufacture
more expensive. Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels trap
the sun’s heat and are a major contributor to climate change.
He also
said on the recording that the company has in the past aggressively fought
climate science through “shadow groups.”
Asked who
was crucial to Exxon’s efforts, Mr. McCoy singled out Senator Joe Manchin III
of West Virginia and said the company was in touch with his office weekly because
“he’s not shy about staking his claim early and completely changing the
debate.” Mr. McCoy also said Exxon lobbyists “look for the moderates” among
Democrats and identified senators such as Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly of
Arizona, Jon Tester of Montana, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Chris Coons
of Delaware as targets of their outreach.
Mr.
Manchin’s spokesman said that Mr. McCoy had “greatly exaggerated his
relationship and influence” with the senator’s staff and that Mr. Manchin
typically meets with a broad range of people.
Aides to
the other Democratic lawmakers said the senators never met with Mr. McCoy or
any Exxon officials around the infrastructure negotiations. Senators Coons and
Hassan also both said in statements that they support President Biden’s efforts
to enact climate legislation.
Hiroko
Tabuchi is an investigative reporter on the climate desk. She was part of the
Times team that received the 2013 Pulitzer for explanatory reporting.
@HirokoTabuchi • Facebook
Lisa
Friedman reports on federal climate and environmental policy from Washington.
She has broken multiple stories about the Trump administration’s efforts to
repeal climate change regulations and limit the use of science in policymaking.
@LFFriedman
.jpg)
.webp)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário