House report: Big Oil 'greenwashing' its failure to cut emissions

Dec. 9 (UPI) -- House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn B. Maloney Friday accused Big Oil of "greenwashing" practices to hide massive long-term investments in fossil fuels and obscure what she said is a failure to meaningfully cut emissions.

The committee released hundreds of investigation documents.

"Even though Big Oil CEOs admitted to my Committee that their products are causing a climate emergency, today's documents reveal that the industry has no real plans to clean up its act and is barreling ahead with plans to pump more dirty fuels for decades to come," said Chairwoman Maloney in a statement.

The oversight committee released a 31-page memo summarizing the committee's investigation into fossil fuel industry disinformation and hundreds of pages of redacted documents Maloney said provide evidence to back up her accusations.

The committee Friday released investigative documents on the American Petroleum Institute, BP, Shell, Exxon and Chevron.

Maloney said documents released by the committee show that Big Oil has doubled down on long-term reliance on fossil fuels "with no intention of taking concrete actions to transition to clean energy."

She said the documents show oil companies publicly posturing on climate issues and clean energy while avoiding real commitments. Their private actions don't match their public rhetoric, according to Maloney.

For example, according to Maloney, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth presented a strategy to the board of directors telling the board Chevron sees competitors retreating from oil and gas, but the Chevron strategy is to continue to invest in fossil fuels to take advantage of industry consolidation.

The oversight committee memo on the oil industry investigation said "The industry's inadequate climate pledges and promised emissions reductions are intended to provide cover for Big Oil to continue raking in billions of dollars by selling fossil fuels for decades to come."

The memo said top oil executives testified acknowledging the "dire threat to humanity posed by climate change and the central role played by burning fossil fuels, but they refused to pledge meaningful actions to avert the ongoing climate catastrophe."

The House Oversight and Reform Committee launched its Big Oil investigation in September 2021.