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(Adds comment from Republican Representative Comer)
By Valerie Volcovici and Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Thursday
opened a year's worth of investigations into whether Big Oil
deceived Americans about its role in climate change, with
Democratic lawmakers grilling the chiefs of four oil companies
and two lobby groups.
Environmental groups and their congressional allies hope the
hearing evokes the Big Tobacco hearings of the 1990s, which
began a shift in public opinion about that industry. Energy
industry representatives plan to focus on their current support
of climate action.
"We will demand accountability from Big Oil for their role
in fueling the climate crisis and deceiving the public, and we
will urge the industry to finally take meaningful action to rein
in emissions from fossil fuels before it is too late," Carolyn
Maloney, the chairwoman of the House oversight committee holding
the hearing said in prepared remarks.
Representative Ro Khanna, who is helping to lead the
hearings, said if lawmakers can show the oil companies lied, "I
think it will be a Big Tobacco moment for Big Oil."
It will be the first time that executives of the top oil
majors - ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, BP America and Chevron - and the
heads of the American Petroleum Institute and Chamber of
Commerce will answer questions about climate change in Congress
under oath.
The hearing was delayed nearly two hours by a last-minute
visit by President Joe Biden to Capitol Hill to update lawmakers
on the framework of his spending and climate legislation.
Representative James Comer, top Republican on the committee,
did not mention climate change in remarks that said the panel
should be addressing inflation and high energy prices he linked
to policies of President Joe Biden's administration.
"The purpose of this hearing is clear: to deliver partisan
theater for primetime news," Comer said.
Republicans invited Neal Crabtree, a welder who lost his job
after Biden canceled the Keystone XL oil pipeline, to testify to
the panel.
This summer, the United Nations released a report warning
that unless immediate, rapid and large-scale action is taken to
reduce emissions, the average global temperature is likely to
reach or cross the 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7 degrees F) warming
threshold within 20 years.
Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said the company "responded
accordingly" when the "scientific community's understanding of
climate change developed" and maintained that he believes oil
and gas will still be needed to meet growing global energy
demand. Woods emphasized Exxon's investments in carbon capture,
a technology to capture emissions for burial underground or to
pump them into aging oilfields to squeeze out more crude.
Woods and Mike Wirth, CEO of Chevron, also played up oil and
gas as being essential for operation of hospitals, schools and
offices.
BP America's CEO David Lawler and Shell Oil's CEO Gretchen
Watkins talked about their recognition that climate change was a
problem in the 1990s and about their current efforts to adapt
their business models to add more renewable energy and lower
emissions. The executives all were testifying virtually.
The energy executives also said that more time is needed for
a transition to cleaner energy.
Suzanne Clark, the president and CEO of the Chamber, pointed
out in written testimony that Biden's international climate
envoy, John Kerry, said this year that half of the emissions
cuts needed to get to net zero will come from technologies that
are not developed yet.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Timothy Gardner; Editing by
David Gregorio)
