Congress Grills Fossil Fuel Giants About Climate Change

MARK HERTSGAARD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COVERING CLIMATE NOW: The Republican Party has for decades now been in lockstep unanimous opposition to doing anything about climate change, except lying about it, just like the fossil fuel executives who are testifying today on Capitol Hill. They have been saying for decades that climate change isn’t real, that the science is a hoax, et cetera, et cetera. And those talking points on the part of Republican politicians on Capitol Hill have been coming directly out of the playbook of Exxon, of Chevron, of BP, of Shell, all these executives who today are finally being called to account for this record of deception that is a large part of the reason that the world now faces what scientists call bluntly a climate emergency.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: And I know that you have been following these hearings. And something that stood out to us was just a rather simple question, a direct question that came from Congresswoman Maloney when she asked the representatives from the oil companies, does anyone on the panel disagree with the statement from the United States and the Defense Department that climate change is an existential threat to our existence? They responded with silence. I mean, I have to say, maybe I’m naive. But I thought we were past this point that many had publicly at least acknowledged the role that fossil fuels played in climate change.

HERTSGAARD: Yes, it’s interesting to see how these executives are answering these questions. They are really earning their multi-multi-million-dollar pay packets today, because they’re in a difficult spot. The documented record of their companies’ lies is voluminous and detailed and devastating. We know going from internal records brought out, by the way, by terrific investigative journalism back in 2015 by “The Los Angeles Times” and Inside Climate News and the Columbia Journalism School, went back into the archives of Exxon and eventually the other companies. Their own scientists were telling them back in the 1970s, early 1980s that climate change was not only real, but threatened — quote — “catastrophic impacts” that — quote — “would affect a substantial portion of the Earth’s population.” And what did the oil companies do with that knowledge that they had inside? Did they share it with the rest of us and try and figure out a way out of this approaching problem? No, they did quite the opposite. They kept it to themselves. And, worse, they then lied to the public, to the press, to policy-makers, saying that this is not real climate change, this is a hoax, et cetera, et cetera. Well, today, these executives are being forced to accommodate — or, rather, confront that record. And I think that’s why they stayed very silent when they’re — when Representative Maloney asked that question, because not only do they have their own documents on the record in the past saying quite the opposite. But, remember, all of these companies are now facing multibillion-dollar lawsuits.