Renewable Revolution

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October 29, 2021




Yesterday six heads of oil companies and lobby groups testified virtually before Congress in a marathon, all-day hearing in which they, and Republicans, provided examples of how their disinformation has shifted from denial that they’re causing the problem to denial by suggesting their polluting products are actually part of the solution. 

The comparison to the tobacco industry hearings, where executives perjured themselves about the risks of smoking, were explicit and frequent, and clearly the CEOs had trained with lawyers to avoid (being investigated for) lying under oath. 

Which means that while the 10am-5pm hearing was full of dramatic moments, despite the CEO’s best attempts to stay on-script and not actually know anything about the companies they run, the biggest news came at the very end: Oversight Committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York will issue subpoenas to obtain documents the companies refused to voluntarily hand over in advance of the hearing. 

In announcing the subpoenas at the end of the hearing, Rep. Maloney, over the objections of Republicans who praised how the companies had voluntarily sent over 100,000 pages, pointed out that most of those pages were useless printouts from their websites, or emails of press releases and other spam the companies turned over in obvious hopes of flooding the Committee with useless garbage. 

Which, coincidentally, also seemed to be their strategy for the hearing.

So there may not have been an obvious moment in which CEOs committed a perjury as obvious and straightforward as the tobacco CEOs. (Which means that we were wrong to suggest the CEOs would wiggle out of their commitments to attend, but right to suggest that lawmakers should get those subpoenas ready to go!) 

But while the Democratic lawmakers presented the CEOs with detailed, well-researched questions about their pollution of the communities in real life and information pollution online, it may end up that the most damning question of the day was supposed to be an easy one. It came from a Republican, and it was one of the only yes or no questions that the CEOs actually answered.   

Rep. Comer tried to reverse-gotcha, and asked the four oil executives if they’d approved any climate disinformation campaigns in their time as CEOs, which of course they all disavowed (hmm, wonder if there’s any reason he didn’t ask API or the Chamber’s leadership?)

But if the legally-enforceable Congressional subpoenas show that the companies are still funding climate change disinformation, or if the company’s misleading ads are in fact considered disinformation campaigns, those simple, declarative answers, basically the only direct ones offered all day, would be proof of perjury, and an irony so rich Republicans would try and give it a tax cut.

When giving opening statements, the CEOs rarely looked up from their carefully crafted scripts that ducked responsibility for the climate crisis and positioned themselves as saviors. Throughout the hearing they remained committed to their talking points, though body language cues like a sudden furious blinking as though they’re trying to signal to “S.O.S.” seemed to signal the occasional discomfort with the tough questions from Democratic lawmakers. 

Fortunately for the CEOs, they got a chance to relax once it was the GOP’s turn to lob them some softballs. Republicans like Rep. Comer went beyond that and even defended the polluters and attacked Democrats for daring to inconvenience these CEOs, then pretended to care about inflation and the well-being of the working class by inviting a pipeline welder who was laid off work on the Keystone XL pipeline.

But Comer apparently couldn’t be bothered to actually listen, as he later asked Mr. Crabtree a question about when he lost his job that he had already addressed in his opening statement. Given Rep. Jim Jordan’s history of ignoring people he’s supposedly protecting, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that he asked Crabtree for a third time when he was laid off. The answer was, once again, just three hours after Biden’s announced cancellation of the pipeline. 

One Republican was disgusted that Democrats were asking the CEOs to pledge not to fund climate disinformation, which apparently is something Republicans support. Two Republicans said the CEOs deserved an apology, and a third, GOP Rep. Herrell, would offer such, as well as a “thank you,” something that Rep. Jim Jordan echoed, as did Rep. Gibbs, and at least two other fossil-fueled Republicans as the day went on. Rep. Higgins, who’s gotten over a hundred thousand dollars from the industry, was particularly incensed. 

When it came to questions from Democratic lawmakers though, all questions were directed to the CEOs. Chairwoman Maloney started by hitting Exxon for its advertorials downplaying climate change, which CEO Darron Woods simply asserted that if you read the full context it actually was consistent with the science, despite Maloney describing in detail how even Exxon’s own scientists contradicted those ads. 

Throughout the day, Woods would repeat variations on that theme, defending the company by claiming statements were consistent with the science of the time, even though Exxon’s internal documents prove they knew that wasn’t the case. “Historically untrue,” tweeted disinformation researcher Robert Brulle of Brown University. 

When it was Rep. Ro Khanna’s turn at the mic, he got the Exxon CEO to admit that fossil fuels cause climate change, and pointed out that former CEO Lee Raymond said exactly the opposite of that, decades after their own scientists made the consensus clear. But Woods refused to say that Raymond was wrong at the time, and instead insisted that it was consistent with the context. Rep. Khanna tried to get him to admit that it was a mistake, and Woods would not admit even that much. 

Khanna then asked about the importance of electric vehicles in decarbonizing, which Shell and BP have both indicated they think is important. API, however, opposes electric vehicle tax credits, so Khanna asked if they would be willing to ask API to stop those advertisements. 

They all refused to tell API to stop that opposition, which they supposedly don’t support, except of course in the literal sense that they financially support API. 

They also refused to commit to an independent audit to determine if their companies were funding climate disinformation organizations or even a pledge not to fund climate denying organizations, even though they all claim to care deeply about the climate crisis. 

While the CEOs claim they support market mechanisms for reducing emissions, they were uniformly incapable of giving a direct number (or even a range) for what price-per-ton a carbon tax should be set at, though Exxon’s CEO suggested that to justify carbon capture it’d need to be at least $100/ton. 

They also had no idea how much American taxpayers subsidize their industry (which ranges from $20 billion to $650 billion, depending on what you count as a 'subsidy') and apparently didn’t know their own internal budgets well enough to say how much public support they get. “I can’t answer your question directly,” BP’s CEO responded, which might as well have been the only answer any of them gave, given their evasiveness and training to avoid repeating the tobacco industry’s perjury. 

Maryland Rep. Haskins pointed out that “the First Amendment does not protect fraudulent commercial speech” and again, the CEOs were unwilling to say anything concrete acknowledging that companies shouldn’t lie — relevant given Exxon’s invocation of the First Amendment in its defense against litigation accusing it of false advertising. 

Later, Rep. Sarbanks, also of Maryland, pulled up lobbying records for the companies, of which the CEOs were similarly ignorant. None seemed aware of the fact that despite their supposed commitment to the Paris Agreement and climate action, they rarely, if ever, lobbied for it. Instead, they’d pushed heavily on corporate tax cuts and other real priorities. According to a report the Committee released, only 0.4% of their $452.6 million on lobbying since 2011 was about the carbon price they supposedly support. (Now, at this point we were definitely wondering how much these CEOs DO know about the companies they supposedly run, but of course, we're not Very Important Titans Of Industry who need plausible deniability.)

Rep. Rashida Tlaib also asked detailed questions, asking the CEOs and then educating them, (since they of course knew nothing) about the various Alaskan, Coloradan, and other front groups like Energy Citizens that API, Exxon and the others funded in recent years. “Lies, plain and simple” she called it. 


Then she pointed out that Chevron owes over $50 billion in settlement fees for all the people and ecosystems harmed by its pollution, and pointedly asked “When are you going to write the checks?” Mr. Worth, of course, demurred. “I’m not exactly following…” he said, in response to how Chevron had successfully paid to put a lawyer in jail after he fought for Indigenous communities suffering the harms of industry pollution. 

Rep. Katie Porter traded her legendary white board for a jar of M&M’s, using them to portray Shell’s massive investments in oil, gas and chemicals, and paltry expenditures on clean energy. She then turned to API’s Sommers, getting him to admit that developing wells takes time, undercutting the GOP’s argument that the Biden agenda is already having impacts. Porter then used a "swagger waggon" full of rice to show how many acres of land they’ve leased to drill on, yet haven’t done anything with (nearly 14 million), further undercutting their argument that recent political moves have constrained oil production. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thought it was a “wonderful opportunity” to speak with the oil CEOs, given their influence watering down the ongoing budget reconciliation negotiations, quoting Sommers on CNN saying they’re “leaving everything on the field” to oppose the legislation. Turning to Exxon CEO Woods, AOC asked about Keith McCoy, the Exxon advisor caught in a sting bragging about their lobbying influence, and concluded by telling them that “some of us have to live in the future you are setting on fire.”

Rep. Cori Bush didn’t pull any punches, either, asking the executives about the disproportionate impact of fossil fuel facilities on communities of color, if most oil CEOs were Black or white, and asked Shell’s CEO how she felt about the company’s reports showing that Bangladesh “a country of 90 million Brown people” would have to be abandoned, and if Black and Brown communities were “expendable.” 

Not getting any good answers, Bush ended her time by calling the environmental injustices their companies commit “a striking example of White supremacy” and calling on the CEOs to resign (like the tobacco executives before them). 

It wasn’t the end of the hearing, but it might as well have been — particularly as the resignation call was echoed by the last speaker, Rep. Ilhan Omar.