Oil Companies ‘could Doom Global Efforts Around Climate Change, House Committee Finds

While major oil and gas companies remain committed to public efforts to combat climate change, they have no plans to take concrete steps to move away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy solutions, according to a report released Friday by House Democrats. Management Committee.

The panel found that Shell, Chevron, BP and the American Petroleum Institute are investing heavily in "preserving and enriching fossil fuels far beyond what scientists believe is safe to prevent catastrophic climate change." Even if they do climate, he promises.

"Basically, we're increasing production, we're increasing emissions, but we can say we're the clean tech company, this green company, because we can do some token movement." . We seem to be fighting climate change. The committee member is a representative. Roe Canana, D-Calif.

"The pessimism was incredibly successful, and unfortunately it was very successful. It was a successful PR strategy," he said.

All of the Committee's Democratic members signed the report, but the Republicans did not.

re / count. James Comer, the committee's Republican speaker, said at an October hearing that the investigation "gives a theatrical bias to prime-time news."

At the COP27 summit, an agreement was reached on the Climate Loss and Damage Fund.

Oil companies expect higher returns on fossil fuel investments, according to internal documents released to NBC News as part of the report. An internal Chevron document predicts revenues of up to $200 billion over the next 40 years from increased offshore oil production in Australia.

ExxonMobil and Chevron recently announced plans to invest more in oil projects.

The companies mentioned in the report did not respond to requests for comment.

The report also found that the companies deliberately misled the public and attempted to "obstruct the commission's investigation and withhold key documents".

"These documents show how oil and gas CEOs have greenlit the fossil fuel public picture with promises and actions they know were in the midst of a decades-old effort to end fossil fuel production that could undermine global efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change." The Commission. wrote in the report.

The internal documents also specifically acknowledge that oil managers will have little impact on total emissions if removal or replacement commitments are not met. "Instead of giving up, what do we do... pour cement on the concrete and burn the ground paper so that no one will buy it?" Shell's head of media relations wrote in an email to a colleague.

The report also indicates that major oil companies are fulfilling their responsibilities under the chairmanship of the deputy chairman of the committee. Caroline Maloney, DN.Y. He was able to derail the committee's investigation, which began in September 2021, by failing to comply with subpoenas for documents. .

“It was like having a tooth pulled,” Kinana said. Exxon blacked out pages of documents, and the Chamber of Commerce withheld internal documents, and the report gave no reason for excluding them.

The report comes after Democrats lost control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections and lost control of the House to lead an investigation. Khanna said the millions of documents found by the commission would be given to those who have more resources and can act on the information.

This is the only way we can be held accountable. "You can't expect a House subcommittee on oil companies when they've been misleading the American people for 40 years and then suddenly take charge."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com