Lawmakers threaten Big Oil with subpoenas for climate disinformation

A day-long Congressional hearing on ‘climate disinformation’ on Thursday, where executives of some of the world’s largest oil companies defended themselves against lawmakers, ended with House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney threatening to issue subpoenas.

“Please know that I do not take this step lightly … we are at code red for climate and I am committed to doing everything I can to help rescue this planet and save it for our children,” Maloney said. “We need to get to the bottom of the disinformation campaign and with these subpoenas we will.”

Executives from the oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP America, defended themselves and their company’s actions, saying they were in line with science of the day.

“Our understanding of the science has been aligned with the consensus of the scientific community as far back as 20 years ago,” said Exxon CEO Darren Woods, responding to questioning from Maloney. “As science has evolved and developed, our understanding has evolved and developed, as has our work and position on the space.”

Maloney said she did not get the information she and her lawmaker colleagues were looking for.

Lawmakers had requested documents from each of the big oil companies in attendance six weeks ago which were due Sept. 30. Lawmakers followed up before the due date and identified key categories of documents they wanted to see. The companies missed the deadline to produce the documents the group was looking to see, and lawmakers warned the companies they had until Oct. 25 or they would “face further action,” Maloney said.

None of the six entities delivered “a substantial portion” of the “key documents” Maloney and the committee wanted to see. Instead, they produced “reams” of publicly available documents.

One group sent in 1,500 pages of documents printed from their own website and 4,000 pages of newsletters with industry press releases, Maloney said. Other companies delivered thousands of pages of publicly available annual reports and company postings on Facebook and LinkedIn, she said.

What Maloney wanted to see was detailed funding information “to understand their payments to shadow groups and to over 150 public relations companies and advertisements on social media,” she said. Those documents were not provided, she said, and called those “payments that today’s witnesses seem intent on continuing.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, the chairman of the Subcommittee on the Environment, pressured Woods to say statements from a former Exxon executive, Lee Raymond, which denied a connection between fossil fuels and global warming was a mistake. While Khanna started his testimony saying, “I don’t have any interest in being adversarial,” the resulting back and forth with Woods got pretty tense.

“You know, when I make a statement, that’s wrong, when most people make a statement, that’s wrong, they say, ‘Okay, it’s a mistake. We regret it.’ I’m just asking you for that,” Khanna said.

“I don’t think it’s fair to…