Eighteen House Democrats have signed a letter to the top executives of the major oil companies asking them what they knew and when about climate change.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Examiner, will be sent in the wake of a Los Angeles Times and Inside Climate News report that officials at ExxonMobil, then just Exxon, hid studies from their scientists showing the burning of fossil fuels affected climate change.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., first sent the letter to House members Oct. 29. A source with knowledge of the letter said it has been circulated for weeks trying to find more signatories, but only 18 lawmakers were willing to sign up.
Jack D’Annibale, spokesman for Lieu, confirmed the letter and said the process of collecting signatures is continuing.
The letter seeks answers from the top executives at British Petroleum, Shell, Peabody Energy, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and ExxonMobil about possible collusion to hide climate change research. Citing the Union of Concerned Scientists, the letter accuses the companies of working together to deceive the public.
The Union of Concerned Scientists “uncovered many internal company documents confirming a massive coordinated campaign of deception conducted by the industry to deceive the public of climate science that even their own scientists confirmed,” the letter says. “These actions included ‘forged letters to Congress, secret funding of a supposedly independent scientist, the creation of fake grassroots organizations, (and) multiple efforts to deliberately manufacture uncertainty about climate science.'”
Most climate scientists blame the burning of fossil fuels for the warming of the Earth due to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
According to the report, ExxonMobil learned in 1977 from a senior scientist that burning fossil fuels would warm the planet. A year later, the company began researching how carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels would affect the planet.
In 1982, the company prepared an internal document on carbon dioxide and climate change that said “major reduction” in fossil fuel use would be needed to avoid catastrophic events. While that was circulating, ExxonMobil didn’t tell regulators about the findings.
Six years after the internal document was produced, ExxonMobil went on the offensive, according to the report. The company began paying for efforts that would cast doubt on climate change, including founding the Global Climate Coalition.
Among the questions asked by the lawmakers are when the companies became aware of fossil fuels’ impact on climate change, what they did with that information and if the companies funded organizations that denied climate change or spread disinformation.
The letter also asks if the companies have forged letters to Congress about climate change, if the companies funded “a supposedly independent” scientist to deny climate change or create fake organizations to spread disinformation about climate change.
Lieu and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Mass., sent a letter to the Department of Justice in October asking Attorney General Loretta Lynch to investigate ExxonMobil. Since then, all the Democratic candidates for president and numerous environmental groups have followed suit. A group of senators has written to ExxonMobil to see if the company secretly funded a group that promoted anti-climate change science.
ExxonMobil has denied the reports.
“We unequivocally reject allegations contained in the letter to Attorney General Lynch from Representatives Lieu and DeSaulnier. Suggestions that ExxonMobil suppressed its climate research are completely without merit,” said company spokesman Alan Jeffers in response to Lieu’s first letter.
The New York Attorney General’s Office is investigating ExxonMobil over claims it covered up its scientists’ findings.
