(Recasts with testimony by oil executives)
By Valerie Volcovici and Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Executives from some of the
world's biggest oil companies denied in U.S. congressional
testimony on Thursday that they continue to misinform the public
about the role of fossil fuels in climate change and resisted
calls to ask lobbying groups they fund to stop obstructing
climate-friendly policies.
It was 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 (API) and Chamber of Commerce answered questions about
climate change in Congress under oath.
Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said at the House of
Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing that
oil companies have started to improve their talking points
around climate change. But Khanna said their support of lobbying
groups that either deny climate science or work to kill major
climate policies contradicts their statements.
"I don't believe that you purposely want to be out there
spreading climate misinformation but you're out there funding
these groups," Khanna said.
Appearing before the panel were CEOs Darren Woods of
ExxonMobil, Gretchen Watkins of Shell Oil, David Lawler of BP
America and Mike Wirth of Chevron. They all testified virtually.
Khanna asked them if any would commit to an independent
audit to verify that none of their funds were going to groups
that deny climate science, or whether they would commit to
pulling their memberships from API even if the oil lobby group
continues to lobby against policies such as electric vehicle
credits and methane fees.
None of the executives said yes.
Committee Democrats said the hearing opens a year of
investigations into whether Big Oil has deceived Americans about
its role in climate change.
The hearing came as President Joe Biden heads to Scotland
for U.N. climate talks and as Congress haggles over climate
provisions in major social spending and infrastructure
legislation.
Environmental groups and their congressional allies hope the
probe evokes the Big Tobacco hearings of the 1990s when tobacco
industry executives were grilled about their knowledge of the
addictive properties of their products, which began a shift in
public opinion about that industry.
"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," said
Representative Carolyn Maloney, the committee chairwoman.
The United Nations this summer released a report saying 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.
Oil executives and trade group officials at the hearing used
the platform to try to distance themselves from previous efforts
to dismiss climate science, saying their policies evolved as the
science became more clear.
Exxon's 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 and Chevron's Wirth played up oil and gas as essential
for operation of hospitals, schools and offices.
BP America's Lawler and Shell's 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.
'PARTISAN THEATER'
Representative James Comer, top panel's Republican, did not
mention climate change in his opening remarks and said the panel
should be addressing inflation and high energy prices he linked
to Biden administration policies.
"The purpose of this hearing is clear: to deliver partisan
theater for prime-time news," Comer said.
The lone Republican witness, Neal Crabtree, a welder who
lost his job after Biden canceled the Keystone XL oil pipeline,
said his main crisis is not climate change but paying for his
mortgage and food for his family.
The Democratic-led committee criticized the companies' scant
support for the Paris climate agreement. It released an analysis
that found from 2015, when the pact was agreed, to 2021, Exxon
reported in its lobbying disclosures only one instance of
lobbying on the Paris Agreement, and none on any of the 28 bills
related to the pact.
"That means that only 0.06% of Exxon 1,543 total instances
of legislative lobbying since 2015 has been devoted to the Paris
Agreement or related legislation," the analysis said.
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.
The energy executives also said that more time is needed for
a transition to cleaner energy.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Timothy Gardner; Editing by
David Gregorio)
