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Congress calls BS on Big Oil’s climate pledges

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Congress calls BS on Big Oil’s climate pledges

At yesterday’s House Oversight hearing, expert witnesses unraveled oil giants’ misleading commitments to address the crisis they continue to cause.

ExxonKnews
Feb 9, 2022
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Congress calls BS on Big Oil’s climate pledges

www.exxonknews.org

Emily Sanders is the Center for Climate Integrity’s editorial lead. Catch up with her on Twitter here.


It may have been the second Big Oil hearing, but yesterday marked an exciting first for us: the first time EXXONKNEWS made it into the Congressional record! 🥴🥳

Special thank you to Tracey Lewis from Public Citizen, who cited last week’s report during her opening testimony.

Back to the matter at hand: Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP’s board members declined invitations to testify before the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee yesterday and answer to the American public about their companies’ (phony) climate pledges. Instead, expert witnesses thoroughly debunked the companies’ pledges as nothing more than a dangerous PR stunt that allows the industry to keep polluting while dressing up as a partner in climate solutions.

At the committee’s last hearing, in October, the executives of the oil industry giants refused to stop funding lies and lobbying against action to address the climate crisis. Tuesday’s hearing, part of the committee’s ongoing investigation, dug into one of the most prominent tools of Big Oil’s present-day deception efforts: their “net-zero emissions” pledges.

“The message is clear: Big Oil intends to continue its playbook from the last four decades, fighting meaningful action to prevent climate change while engaging in a PR campaign to deceive the public,” Chair Carolyn Maloney said in her opening remarks. “This committee will not stand for it – we launched this investigation to get to the bottom of Big Oil’s role in contributing to climate change and we will get to the bottom of these pledges.”

Twitter avatar for @RepMaloney
Carolyn B. Maloney @RepMaloney
None of the board members of Big Oil companies we invited to come in and explain their climate pledges showed up today. Not a single one. So today we are hearing from experts who will expose Big Oil’s "pledges" for what they are—empty promises.
Twitter avatar for @OversightDems
Oversight Committee @OversightDems
"For decades, the fossil fuel industry waged a multi-million-dollar disinformation campaign to cast doubt on the science and prevent action to reduce emissions." —Chair @RepMaloney during today's hearing on Big Oil's climate disinformation campaign https://t.co/PszA51kEIb
5:32 PM ∙ Feb 8, 2022
451Likes220Retweets

Three witnesses for the majority — Michael Mann, professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University; Follow This founder Mark Van Baal; and EXXONKNEWS reader Lewis, who is policy counsel at Public Citizen — were called in to speak to whether the oil giant’s commitments actually line up with the goals of the Paris Agreement, which seek to keep warming temperatures below a threshold at which climate damages will become irreversible.

Twitter avatar for @Public_Citizen
Public Citizen @Public_Citizen
.@AOC: Fossil fuel companies are publically saying they believe in the Paris Agreement, but all of their actions indicate that is a lie.
6:59 PM ∙ Feb 8, 2022
561Likes104Retweets

As the witnesses explained, the fossil fuel companies’ current pledges would reduce too little of their climate emissions, too late.

Twitter avatar for @followthis2015
Follow This @followthis2015
It was a pleasure to be talking with @AOC during the 🇺🇸 Congressional hearing on #BigOil’s🛢️ climate pledges. In the next 10 years, we will win or lose the fight against #ClimateChange 🌎
9:29 PM ∙ Feb 8, 2022
16Likes10Retweets

In some cases, as we described last week, Chevron and Exxon’s plans allow them to pollute even more, under the guise that they are polluting each barrel of oil “more efficiently.”

“If you were to believe the advertisements of Big Oil and what their executives told you last October, you would think they were taking adequate action to address the crisis. In reality, they are not,” said Van Baal. “On the contrary, they are still exacerbating the climate crisis by increasing their CO2 emissions. These companies intend to grow emissions up to 2030.”

Mann said the companies’ reliance on emissions intensity metrics was “sort of like your doctor telling you that you need to cut fat from your diet and so you switch to 40% reduced fat potato chips, but you eat twice as many of them.”

As Mann also noted, Exxon and Chevron’s plans don’t cover Scope 3 emissions — that is, the emissions that come from consumers using their products as intended. "It's like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It is not addressing the gorilla in the room. Ninety percent of the carbon emissions are from Scope 3," he said.

Twitter avatar for @RepMaloney
Carolyn B. Maloney @RepMaloney
Both Chevron and Exxon have made some form of a pledge to reduce emissions by 2050 – but both of their “pledges” do not cover emissions from the burning of the oil and gas they sell and neither plan to reduce production. How does that make any sense?!
9:10 PM ∙ Feb 8, 2022
42Likes15Retweets

Committee members emphasized the consequences of Big Oil’s delay tactics for vulnerable communities.

Several representatives described the local consequences of Big Oil’s false promises and ongoing deception — especially for communities of color in their districts, who are hit first and worst by climate-driven rising seas, hurricanes, flooding, extreme heat, wildfires, pollution and more.

Twitter avatar for @Public_Citizen
Public Citizen @Public_Citizen
Feeling thankful we have @RashidaTlaib in these Big Oil hearings.
7:18 PM ∙ Feb 8, 2022
189Likes48Retweets

Rep. Ayanna Pressley also reminded us of the many untested and risky technologies the fossil fuel industry claims it can rely on to reach net-zero, citing the disastrous carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) pipeline explosion in a small Mississippi town that forced hundreds of residents to flee their homes, and landed nearly 50 people in the hospital.

“Fossil fuel companies like to point to carbon capture and sequestration as a way to offset their greenhouse gas emissions while allowing them to continue producing their toxic product at the same level,” Rep. Pressley said. “But there is little evidence that the technology actually works.”

Big Oil’s defenders spouted flat-out climate denial.

Much like they did in the first hearing, Big Oil’s supporters on the committee consistently denied the severity of the climate crisis and deflected from the industry’s lies, genuflecting to the mantle of fossil fuels and “energy freedom” in the United States. 

Twitter avatar for @zealousobserver
Lena Greenberg @zealousobserver
Awkward, unsurprising: #BigOilLies shill Katie Tubb and GOP using the same talking points. Tubb's employer, the Heritage Foundation: $870,000 in grants from ExxonMobil. GOP members on the Oversight Committee: $4+ million from the fossil fuel industry.
Image
3:52 PM ∙ Feb 8, 2022
16Likes11Retweets

Funny – as others have pointed out, Big Oil’s decades of deception and lobbying to influence climate policy have ensured the exact opposite of energy freedom, giving consumers no real choice but to rely on dangerous fossil fuel products.

Twitter avatar for @JiayuLiang_
Jiayu Liang (she/her) @JiayuLiang_
According to #BigOilLies, "energy freedom" = lashing ourselves to ExxonMobil's plan to lock us into the 20th century energy system. But in reality, "energy freedom" = rapidly transitioning to a clean energy system that is safer for the climate and people's health
4:06 PM ∙ Feb 8, 2022
15Likes7Retweets

Perhaps that’s not surprising, since, as Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi made clear, the single minority witness chosen to speak up for poor Big Oil — Katie Tubb, senior policy analyst for the oil-funded Heritage Foundation — is an out-and-out climate denier with no scientific credentials.

Twitter avatar for @CongressmanRaja
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi @CongressmanRaja
As I noted during this Oversight Committee hearing on big oil and climate change, we need to listen to the scientists. The stakes are too high to do otherwise.
9:00 PM ∙ Feb 8, 2022
158Likes32Retweets

From Congress to the courts, the walls of accountability are closing in.

Rep. Maloney confirmed that the committee is calling on the Big Oil board members to testify at a March 8 hearing to discuss the pledges their companies have made, saying that the committee will use “every tool at its disposal” to get those companies to come clean. That could mean forcing them to show up using subpoena power, just as they did for the CEOs last go-around.

“The American public, and all generations to come, deserve accountability,” Maloney said.

As the hearing was wrapping up, what was already a bad day for Big Oil became even worse: a federal appeals court issued an important win in a climate accountability lawsuit filed by several Colorado communities — some of whom, as we reported last month, are fighting ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy in court while recovering from destructive wildfires. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that the lawsuit can proceed in state court, where it was filed, and where the fossil fuel companies are scared of facing a jury. Six other appeals courts are considering similar arguments from oil companies hoping to escape accountability — but thankfully, so far, judges keep refusing to let them off the hook.  

Twitter avatar for @Power_of_Law
Marco Simons @Power_of_Law
Big win for #climate accountability! Our Colorado clients just beat Exxon & Suncor (again) and will continue their climate lawsuits in Colorado state courts. These companies WILL be held accountable for their contributions to the climate crisis.
news.bloomberglaw.comExxon, Suncor Energy Lose Appeal in Colorado Climate Case (2)A federal appellate court on Tuesday tossed an appeal from oil and gas companies looking to keep a Boulder, Colo., climate liability case in federal court.
6:58 PM ∙ Feb 8, 2022
16Likes5Retweets

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Congress calls BS on Big Oil’s climate pledges

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