October, 13 2021, 11:19am EDT
Big Oil Execs Will Testify at Historic Congressional Hearing
Exxon, Shell, Chevron, and BP Executives Will Face Questions About Industry’s Role in Spreading Climate Disinformation; Companies Are Fighting Lawsuits in More than Two Dozen States and Municipalities For Lying About Products’ Role in Climate Change
WASHINGTON
Executives from four of the world's largest oil and gas companies, as well as two industry trade associations, have agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on October 28 as part of an expanding congressional investigation into Big Oil's historic and ongoing campaigns to deceive the public about their products' role in causing and fueling the climate crisis, Rep. Ro Khanna told The Washington Post.
The testimony from ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, Chevron CEO Michael K. Wirth, BP America CEO David Lawler, Shell President Gretchen Watkins, American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne Clark, would mark the first time that Big Oil executives will have to answer questions under oath about their industry's well-documented efforts to spread disinformation in order to obstruct climate action.
Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ro Khanna requested that the executives appear as witnesses and provide a slew of documentation related to their companies' potential role in disinformation.
The Center for Climate Integrity has compiled some of the public evidence of the companies' climate deception at SlipperySix.org.
Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement:
"Thanks to the determination of Chairs Maloney and Khanna, the stage is now set for a historic showdown that will help expose Big Oil's decades-long efforts to lie to the American people about climate change.
"Just as Congress caught the 'Seven Dwarfs' of Big Tobacco lying under oath about the harm their products caused, this committee has an opportunity to make the 'Slippery Six' of Big Oil answer to the American public for their persistent lying about their products' role in causing climate change.
"We will never achieve the transformational climate policies we need until we stop oil and gas companies from lying about their role in causing the crisis and obstructing solutions."
ExxonMobil Lobbyist Admitted to Company's Climate Deception, Fear of Testifying:
In June, ExxonMobil's senior federal lobbyist admitted on tape that the company has used "shadow groups" to undermine climate science and oppose government action, and that the company only publicly supported a carbon tax because it would never pass and was a good "talking point."
In that same recording, Keith McCoy, ExxonMobil's senior director of federal relations, said: "Our CEO was invited to a hearing from a member of Congress who we know is just going to rip him to shreds when he goes there. The main thing that they're looking at is to get ExxonMobil in front of a Congressional hearing so they can rip us apart."
Background on Lawsuits Seeking to Hold Big Oil Accountable for Climate Deception:
Since 2017, the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia, as well as 20 city and county governments in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and Washington, have filed lawsuits to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about their products' role in climate change.
The Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) helps cities and states across the country hold corporate polluters accountable for the massive impacts of climate change.
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Privacy Defenders Decry 'Spy Draft' in Section 702 Renewal Advanced by Senate
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Civil liberties defenders on Thursday decried the U.S. Senate's advancement of the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which critics say lawmakers are trying to ram through without protection against warrantless surveillance and with a provision that would effectively make every American a spy whether they like it or not.
Senators voted 67-32 in favor of a cloture motion to begin voting on RISAA, a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on Friday. FISA—a highly controversial law that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times—allows warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens but also often sweeps up Americans' communication data in the process.
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This so-called "Make Everyone a Spy" clause would allow the attorney general or director of national intelligence to force electronic communication service providers to "immediately provide... all information, facilities, or assistance" the government deems necessary.
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Critics accuse Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and colleagues including Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) of trying to rush a vote on RISAA while disingenuously claiming Section 702's powers will expire with the law on Friday. That's a misleading claim, as a national security court earlier this month approved the government's request to continue a disputed surveillance program even if Section 702 lapses.
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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—who
said earlier this week that the bill would dragoon the American people into becoming "an agent for Big Brother"—on Thursday argued that "this issue demands a debate about meaningful reforms, not a rushed vote to rubber-stamp more warrantless government surveillance powers."
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The Biden administration and U.S. intelligence agencies vehemently oppose the Durbin-Cramer amendment. The White House called the measure "a reckless policy choice contrary to the key lessons of 9/11 and not grounded in any constitutional requirement or statute."
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On Wednesday, the House also passed the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act, which would prohibit the government from buying Americans' information from data brokers if it would otherwise need a warrant to obtain the data, which includes location and internet records. The Senate will now take up FANFSA.
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Since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has said is a "plausibly" genocidal assault of the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas-led October attack, the Biden administration has blocked three cease-fire resolutions at the Security Council. Under mounting global pressure, the U.S. finally abstained last month, allowing a cease-fire measure to pass.
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"We came to the Security Council today as an important historic moment, regionally and internationally, so that we could salvage what can be saved. We place you before a historic responsibility to establish the foundations of a just and comprehensive peace in our region."
Council members were given the opportunity "to revive the hope that has been lost among our people" and to translate their commitment towards a two-state solution into firm action "that cannot be maneuvered or retracted," and the majority of council members "have risen to the level of this historic moment, and they have stood on the side of justice and freedom and hope, in line with the ethical and humanitarian and legal principles that must govern our world and in line with simple logic."
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Even after dozens of students were arrested, hundreds "rushed to take the place of their classmates" and continued the protest.
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The arrests of dozens of Columbia University and Barnard College students on Thursday "galvanized" other supporters of Palestinian rights on the campuses, as hundreds of students occupied the school's western lawn after New York City police filled at least two buses with protesters who had been detained for setting up an encampment.
"Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest," chanted hundreds of students as they marched around the area where organizers had set up a tent encampment early Wednesday morning.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik informed the campus community on Thursday that she had authorized the police to clear the encampment.
As it has been in the past, the school has become a center of anti-war protests—and crackdowns by school officials and the police—since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October.
Pro-Palestinian students and alumni have demanded that Columbia divest from companies that profit from Israel's apartheid policies in the occupied Palestinian territories and cancel its dual degree program with Tel Aviv University.
In response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Columbia in November suspended the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine—an action that pushed the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal to file a lawsuit on behalf of the students last month.
On Thursday, police and Columbia employees took down about 50 tents that had been up for more than a day and disposed of them in trash cans and alleyways—but The New York Times reported later that "demonstrators repitched a couple of tents, and ... recovered the main signage from the encampment as well," while hundreds of students were "still gathered and chanting on the south side of the grass."
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U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose daughter, Isra Hirsi, was among the Barnard students who were suspended on Thursday for participating in the encampment protest, questioned Shafik about whether antisemitic protests have actually taken place at Columbia, prompting the president to say there have not.
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"Correct," replied Shafik.
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