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By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The head of a U.S. House panel
on Tuesday subpoenaed four major oil companies and two lobbying
groups for documents related to their actions on global warming
as part of a year-long probe into potential climate deception by
the energy industry.
Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat and the
chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform,
issued subpoenas to Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp
, BP America and Shell Oil, and to
industry body the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The committee had asked the companies and organizations on
Sept. 16 for documents on issues including their role in
contributing to climate change, their marketing and lobbying
efforts, and any funding of third parties to spread
disinformation on climate.
"To date, none of the entities has substantially complied
with the Committee’s requests" Maloney said on Tuesday in a memo
https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2021-11-2%20Fossil%20Fuel%20Subpoena%20Memo%20%28Final%29.pdf
to fellow members of the committee about the subpoenas https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/Final%20Fossil%20Fuel%20Subpoenas.pdf.
Maloney had announced last week at the end of a hearing on
Big Oil and climate disinformation that she would subpoena the
companies and organizations, saying much of what the committee
had received were publicly-available documents.
Maloney and other Democrats on the committee say oil
companies have reaped huge profits for decades while they misled
the public on climate change and prevented action to curb it.
The companies and organizations deny the assertions.
The panel has received some documents from former Exxon
lobbyist, Keith McCoy, who was secretly recorded by
environmental group Greenpeace, https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/big-oil-hearing-kick-off-us-probe-into-climate-disinformation-lawmaker-2021-10-27
saying the company's support of a carbon tax was a ruse, since
the company believed the idea would never become law.
Democrats are modeling the probe on the Big Tobacco hearings
of the 1990s which took place over many months and eventually
revealed that companies buried evidence that cigarettes are
addictive and harmful.
In response to the subpoena, Exxon spokesperson Casey Norton
said the company has now provided almost 130,000 pages of
documents "including internal emails".
Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith said Shell will continue to
cooperate with the committee.
J.P. Fielder, a BP America spokesperson said BP is reviewing
the subpoena and will continue working with the committee. BP
has provided more than 17,000 pages of documents including
internal materials.
Matt Letourneau, spokesperson for the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce said "we will review" the subpoena.
API spokesperson Bethany Aronhalt Williams said the group
will work with the committee.
Chevron did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner
Editing by Marguerita Choy)
