Major oil companies have admitted internally that their public vows to reduce planet-warming emissions are incompatible with their business plans, according to a three-year report issued by Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Budget Committee. of Chamber Supervision.
The report, which is based on an Oversight investigation that was halted after Republicans won the House majority, includes documents in which oil industry figures appear to acknowledge the industry’s history of consciously suppressing the link between fossil fuels and climate change. climate.
In 2015, a joint investigation by Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times reported that ExxonMobil had deliberately pushed back against climate science.
While the company denies this publicly, the reporting documents include a 2016 email exchange in which a media relations manager writes: “It is true that Inside Climate News originally accused us of working against science, but it ended modifying his charge to work against policies aimed at stopping climate change, such as Kyoto. Either way, I’m fine, as both were true at one time or another.”
The report alleges that major oil companies, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute trade group, have modified their strategy over the years, moving from outright denial to “deception, misinformation and ambiguous language.” Its strategies on this front, the report alleges, include mispositioning natural gas as a climate-friendly “bridge fuel” to renewables that dwarf its emissions. They have also publicly expressed their support for the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, but have internally recognized that those goals are not compatible with their long-term business strategies, according to the report.
The commission also alleges that the industry publicly expresses its support for climate legislation and regulation, while privately lobbying against it or relying on trade groups to do that work. This echoes comments made by former ExxonMobil lobbyist Keith McCoy, who told an undercover activist in 2021 that the company “aggressively [fought] against science” on climate change. The company said McCoy did not speak favorably in the interview.
Additionally, the report alleges that ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, API and the Chamber continually obstructed the investigation.
“For decades, the fossil fuel industry knew about the economic and climate harms of its products, but deceived the American public to continue collecting more than $600 billion a year in subsidies while making record profits,” he said. Sheldon, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Whitehouse (DR.I.) said in a statement. “As this joint report makes clear, the industry’s outright denial of climate change has evolved into a seemingly green cover for its ongoing covert operation – a campaign of deception, disinformation and doublespeak waged using dark money, fake front groups , false economics, and relentless exercise of political influence – to block climate progress.”
The report comes a day before the Budget Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on its findings, with House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) among the scheduled witnesses.
Several of the oil companies and entities mentioned in the report reacted against its characterizations. A Shell spokesperson told The Hill that “[o]Of the nearly 90,000 documents provided to the Committee, the few they chose to highlight are evidence of Shell’s efforts to set realistic goals, enhance its portfolio and meaningfully participate in the energy transition.”
An ExxonMobil spokesperson said the report contained “tiring allegations that have already been publicly addressed through previous congressional hearings on the same subject and litigation in the courts.”
“At a time of persistent inflation and geopolitical instability, our nation needs more American energy — including more oil and natural gas — and less baseless election-year rhetoric,” an API spokesperson told The Hill. A Chevron spokesperson told The Hill that the company abides by API’s statement.
The Hill has reached out to the Chamber and the other companies named in the report for comment.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
