WASHINGTON, D. C. — Democrats in Congress hoped to use a Thursday hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to highlight the oil and gas industry’s role in climate change and their efforts to cover it up as they grilled the CEOs of Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP America and the American Petroleum Institute.
The committee’s Republican members — including Champaign County’s Jim Jordan and Holmes County’s Bob Gibbs — had other ideas, portraying the industry as the victim of destructive policies implemented by President Joe Biden’s presidential administration.
The committee chair, New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, described the hearing as “historic” and said it would end Big Oil’s history of escaping accountability for “its central role in bringing our planet to the brink of a climate catastrophe.” She likened its conduct to the tobacco industry’s past denial of links between smoking and lung disease.
She said the industry changed its rhetoric as the effects of climate change became undeniable and spent “billions of dollars on PR firms to paint themselves as climate champions” while continuing to invest in new oil fields, “spending tens of millions to protect their profits from oil and gas” while “fighting tooth and nail against key climate provisions” that the Biden administration wants to pass in its “Build Back Better” Agenda.
“After four decades of deception and delay, it is time for the fossil fuel industry to finally change its ways,” Maloney said. “We can prevent a climate disaster while keeping energy costs low and creating good-paying jobs—but only if Big Oil acknowledges its central role in this crisis and commits to meaningful and immediate action.”
The oil and gas executives at the hearing highlighted their company’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, with Chevron CEO Michael K. Wirth saying his company accepts the scientific consensus that climate change is real and the use of fossil fuels contributes to it.
“While our views on climate change have developed over time, any suggestion that Chevron is engaged in an effort to spread disinformation and mislead the public on these complex issues is simply wrong,” Wirth told the committee. “In recent years, conversations about climate have intensified. Innovation and technology have accelerated, and the energy system that underpins our global economy has continued to evolve. So has Chevron. We believe the future of energy is lower carbon. And we’re committed to being a leader in making that future a reality.”
BP America CEO David Lawler said his company was among the first in its industry to publicly recognize the scientific consensus about the human contribution to climate change and has taken “significant action” in the following quarter-century.
He said it hopes to be a net-zero emitter by mid-century. By 2030, he said, the company expects to reduce its global oil and gas production by 40 percent, relative to 2019. As it reduces oil and gas production, he said BP intends to grow its low-carbon investments to $3 to 4 billion per year by 2025. He said that by the end of the decade, his company aims to invest $5 billion, or nearly a third of our projected capital expenditures, in low-carbon energy.
Many of the Democrats on the committee challenged the CEOs claims of good climate stewardship. U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California asked if they’d leave the American Petroleum Institute, which is lobbying Congress against electric vehicles, or commit to not funding organizations that deny climate change.
“I’ll commit to continuing to be an active member of API,” replied Shell CEO Gretchen Watkins. “We discuss many issues in API, some of which have to do with climate policy.”
Jordan used his time to lament the fate of workers laid off when Biden stopped construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and tried to link Biden’s policies to rising gasoline prices. According to U.S. Department of Energy statistics, the average price of gasoline in the United States last week was $3.38, compared with $2.14 in the corresponding week of 2020.
He observed that carbon dioxide emissions in the United States are lower than they were 20 years ago because of innovations in the oil and gas industry and noted that the United States went from being an oil and gas exporter during the Trump administration to importing it today.
He said that workers who lost their jobs in the energy industry are now paying higher costs for transportation “because of the crazy energy policies of this government” and accused Democrats of coming in “and badger companies, tell them to further reduce, in some cases, production of oil and gas, which is only going to exacerbate the problem. It’s literally maybe the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Gibbs declared it “shameful” for the committee to demonize the oil and gas industry and said he’s “very proud” of them. He described them as “innovators” dating back to the Industrial Revolution who used technology to improve the nation’s standard of living and transform it into a global power. He described their efforts to transition to more environmentally friendly renewable power as “amazing.” He asked American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers what’s happened to oil and gas exploration in the past 10 months.
Sommers, who formerly served as an aide to ex-House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, said U.S. petroleum demand reached a record high in September, but domestic oil production that month was down by 1.9 million barrels a day from its level in the same month in the pre-pandemic year of 2019. Sommers attributed lower production to reasons including a worker shortage throughout the United States, as well as “federal regulations and announcements.”
“When the first announcement out of the administration was cancelling the Keystone XL Pipeline and the second announcement was canceling development on federal land and leases on those federal lands and permitting on those federal lands, I do think it’s sent a chilling effect across the industry about where this administration was headed in terms of development of resources here in the United States,” said Sommers.
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