Washington – Top oil executives have appeared before United States lawmakers to face allegations they misled the public about climate change.
Major producers were quizzed about the impact of the fossil fuels they profit from and their environmental toll.
The hearing on Thursday, which Democrats hailed as historic, marked the first time oil bosses had answered questions publicly and under oath.
The six-hour session saw some heated exchanges, with firms such as BP and Shell facing tough questions.
“Some of us actually have to live the future that you are all setting on fire for us,” Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said.
But the executives of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell repeatedly spoke about their efforts to transition to clean energy and denied misleading the public.
The session, which saw decades of lobbying and public statements by America’s biggest energy firms put under the spotlight, came just days before the start of the UN’s COP26 climate conference.
President Joe Biden is set to fly to Glasgow for the meeting of world leaders, which is being seen as a crucial moment in the global fight against climate change.
The hearing in House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing was part of a broad probe that Democrats said would last a year.
“For far too long, Big Oil has escaped accountability for its central role in bringing our planet to the brink of a climate catastrophe,” committee chairwoman Carolyn B Maloney said during her introduction.
Questioning Exxon’s CEO, she said there had been a “clear conflict” between what past executives had said publicly versus the the effects of the company’s activities on the climate.
Maloney also condemned the companies for failing to provide internal documents that the committee had requested ahead of the hearings.
The committee had been seeking records relating to “payments to shadow groups,” public relations firms and other firms, as well as records of communications from senior executives discussing their companies’ role in the climate crisis.
Maloney told the executives that she intends to issue subpoenas to force them to hand over the documents.
“I have tried very hard to obtain this information voluntarily, but the oil companies employ the same tactics they used for decades on climate policy: delay and obstruction,” she said.
Throughout proceedings, Democrats were keen to draw parallels between their climate disinformation probe and the House’s Big Tobacco investigation in the 1990s, which, after months of testimony, concluded that cigarette companies tried to conceal evidence that their products were addictive and harmful.
A statement issued by the committee on Wednesday said the industry had known about the effects of global warming since 1977 but “for decades spread denial and doubt about the harm of its products”.
(BBC)
