{"id":928762,"date":"2021-10-27T14:28:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T18:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=928762"},"modified":"2021-10-27T14:28:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T18:28:53","slug":"democrats-to-begin-year-long-investigation-into-big-oil-disinformation-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-to-begin-year-long-investigation-into-big-oil-disinformation-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats To Begin Year-Long Investigation Into Big Oil \u2018Disinformation\u2019 Campaign"},"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\">20<\/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-to-begin-year-long-investigation-into-big-oil-disinformation-campaign%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=928762&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>House Democrats are set to begin a year-long probe into major oil corporations\u2019 alleged decades-long \u201cdisinformation\u201d campaign on climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna, the chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment, an <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/21\/democrat-ro-khanna-big-oil-hearing-exxonmobil\/\">outspoken critic<\/a> of oil companies, is spearheading the investigation alongside Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney. On Thursday, executives from some of the largest fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, will testify at a <a href=\"https:\/\/oversight.house.gov\/legislation\/hearings\/fueling-the-climate-crisis-exposing-big-oil-s-disinformation-campaign-to\">committee hearing<\/a> related to the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis will be a year-long investigation and the hearings mark the beginning of it,\u201d Khanna <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/cop\/big-oil-hearing-kick-off-us-probe-into-climate-disinformation-lawmaker-2021-10-27\/\">told<\/a> Reuters. \u201cThe idea is for them to admit to the American people what they have done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The committee accused the fossil fuel industry of hiding scientific evidence tying their business to global warming since 1977, in a document announcing Thursday\u2019s hearing. Oil companies have also spread \u201cdenial and doubt\u201d about whether fossil fuels contribute to climate change which has undermined potential legislative actions, according to the document.<\/p>\n<p>Khanna and Maloney <a href=\"https:\/\/oversight.house.gov\/news\/press-releases\/oversight-committee-launches-investigation-of-fossil-fuel-industry\">first revealed<\/a> the investigation in September when they wrote letters to fossil fuel industry leaders and executives requesting information on their alleged involvement in spreading climate \u201cdisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are deeply concerned that the fossil fuel industry has reaped massive profits for decades while contributing to climate change that is devastating American communities, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, and ravaging the natural world,\u201d the two Democratic leaders wrote to the hearing participants. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/19\/energy-independence-united-states-joe-biden-american-petroleum-institute\/\">(RELATED: America Is Becoming More Dependent On Foreign Oil Under Biden)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are also concerned that to protect those profits, the industry has reportedly led a coordinated effort to spread disinformation to mislead the public and prevent crucial action to address climate change,\u201d they continued.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7310060\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"33\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7310060\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rep. Ro Khanna speaks at a climate rally on July 20. (Shannon Finney\/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Khanna and other lawmakers likened the probe to the 1994 congressional \u201cBig Tobacco\u201d hearings, according to Reuters. Those hearings, led by former Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, ultimately revealed that tobacco companies worked to hide evidence showing the potential harm of cigarettes.<\/p>\n<p>Tobacco company executives falsely testified to lawmakers that nicotine wasn\u2019t addictive, <a href=\"https:\/\/senate.ucsf.edu\/tobacco-ceo-statement-to-congress\">according<\/a> to a transcript of the 1994 hearings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOil and other fossil fuels are part of our energy supply, which we depend on for the good of our economy,\u201d Waxman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eenews.net\/articles\/lawmakers-study-big-tobacco-perjury-before-big-oil-showdown\/\">told<\/a> E&amp;E News on Wednesday. \u201cBut for the good of our planet, we\u2019ve got to move away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I think Congressman Khanna has got to do is show that internal discussions by some of the people in the oil industry (aimed) to continue to mislead and deny the facts of what they were trying to do, which was to deny there was a connection between fossil fuels and climate change,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, BP America CEO David Lawler, Chevron CEO Michael K. Wirth and Gretchen Watkins, the president of Shell Oil, will all participate in the hearings, according to the committee. Officials from the industry trade groups American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will also testify.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExxonMobil has long acknowledged that climate change is real and poses serious risks. In addition to our substantial investments in next generation technologies, ExxonMobil also advocates for responsible climate-related policies,\u201d Exxon spokesperson Casey Norton told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur public statements about climate change are, and have been, truthful, fact-based, transparent, and consistent with the views of the broader, mainstream scientific community at the time,\u201d Norton continued. \u201cExxonMobil has contributed to the development of climate science for decades and has made its work publicly available. And as the scientific community\u2019s understanding of climate change developed, ExxonMobil responded accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The other hearing participants didn\u2019t immediately respond to the DCNF\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Democrats are set to begin a year-long probe into major oil corporations\u2019 alleged decades-long \u201cdisinformation\u201d campaign on climate change.Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna, the chairman of the House Oversight &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-928762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928762","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}