{"id":2250376,"date":"2024-05-22T13:09:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T17:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-refer-climate-investigation-of-oil-majors-to-justice-department\/"},"modified":"2024-05-22T13:14:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T17:14:09","slug":"democrats-refer-climate-investigation-of-oil-majors-to-justice-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-refer-climate-investigation-of-oil-majors-to-justice-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats seek Justice Department action on climate probe of oil giants"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-refer-climate-investigation-of-oil-majors-to-justice-department%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2250376&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Democrats\u200b have referred their investigation into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/economists-bidens-policies-to-lift-oil-and-gas-prices-hurt-u-s-households\/\" title=\"Economists: Biden\u2019s policies to lift oil and gas prices, hurt U.S. households\">major oil companies<\/a> to the\u2062 Justice Department. They are probing if these companies deliberately misled the public about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-passes-resolution-condemning-campus-anti-semitism\/\" title=\"Senate condemns campus anti-Semitism.\">climate change\u2064 impacts<\/a>. Senators\u200d Whitehouse and Rep. Raskin claim that documents from their three-year \u200cinquiry reveal deceptive practices by the oil industry to promote fossil fuels and conceal their role in climate change. The Democrats have forwarded their \u2063inquiry on major \u2063oil firms to the Justice Department. Their focus is on determining if these companies intentionally misled \u200cthe \u2062public regarding the effects of climate change. Senators Whitehouse and Rep. Raskin assert that records from their extensive three-year investigation\u2064 expose deceptive behaviors within the oil sector,\u2063 aiming to boost fossil fuels and obscure their involvement in climate change.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_78\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/democrats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Democrats\">Democrats<\/a> on Wednesday referred to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/justice-department\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Justice Department \">Justice <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/justice-department\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Democrats\">Department<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/justice-department\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Justice Department \"> <\/a>their investigation into oil majors and whether the companies knowingly deceived the public about the effects of climate change. <\/p>\n<p>In the letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) allege the documents uncovered during the course of their nearly three-year investigation demonstrate that the oil and gas industry has been using \u201cdeceptive practices\u201d to \u201centrench the use of fossil fuels\u201d and keep the public in the dark about their links to climate change\u2014 including collaborating with trade groups and academic institutions to deceive the public about their positions on climate issues, and to \u201clend an aura of credibility\u201d to their claims.<\/p>\n<p>The lawmakers also alleged that the companies they investigated pledged to limit warming to 1.5C, a target set by the Paris Climate accord, and to support their own paths to reaching net-zero emissions\u2014 all while \u201cinternally recognizing that those goals were outside of their current business plans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Reporter's Notebook: Biden is under pressure to declare climate emergency\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r93XExMlIX0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe examples set out in this letter only begin to illustrate how the documents reviewed by the Committees highlighted an enterprise committed to continued\u2014and even increased\u2014 production of oil and gas, despite knowing of massive harms that would result and choosing to keep the public in the dark about that knowledge,\u201d the lawmakers said.<\/p>\n<p>They also argued their investigation demonstrated that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/al-gore-we-need-to-break-through-fossil-fuel-industry-blockade\/\" title=\"Al Gore urges breaking fossil fuel industry blockade\">fossil fuel industry continues<\/a> to \u201cknowingly obfuscate\u201d the dangers of natural gas. \u201cThis evidence, combined with the entities\u2019 failure to comply fully with validly issued congressional subpoenas, suggests that further investigation by the executive branch is warranted,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p>The move comes one month after the Senate Budget and House Oversight Committees authored a 66-page <a href=\"https:\/\/www.budget.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/fossil_fuel_report1.pdf\" title>report<\/a> claiming some of the nation\u2019s largest oil companies have been aware of and acknowledged that fossil fuels cause climate change.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department did not immediately respond to the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>\u2018s<em> <\/em>request for comment on the referral.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, Democrats escalated their inquiry into oil majors\u2019 potential deception on climate change effects. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and House Oversight Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) forwarded the investigation to the Justice Department, aiming to determine if oil companies misled the public. The move underscores the gravity of the allegations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2650,"featured_media":2250377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP24107559736509-1.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2250376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP24107559736509-1.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2250376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2250377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2250376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2250376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2250376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}