Prime US oil executives have been accused of decades-long trade efforts to unfold disinformation over the function of fossil fuels in driving international warming throughout congressional hearings held on Thursday, days earlier than pivotal UN local weather talks.

Democratic legislators slammed the chief executives of American supermajors ExxonMobil and Chevron alongside the US heads of Royal Dutch Shell and BP for deceptive the general public over the businesses’ contributions to climate change in a grilling that marked the start of a year-long investigation into the matter.

“For much too lengthy, Large Oil has escaped accountability for its central function in bringing our planet to the brink of a local weather disaster. That ends right now,” mentioned Carolyn Maloney, a New York congresswoman and chair of the Home of Representatives oversight and reform committee.

The hearings marked the primary time a gaggle of senior executives from the nation’s largest oil teams had appeared collectively earlier than Congress, albeit remotely, to testify over the roles of their firms in inflicting local weather change. They have been joined by the heads of foyer teams the American Petroleum Institute and the US Chamber of Commerce.

Democrats mentioned the trade had expanded fossil gasoline manufacturing regardless of being conscious of the function of emissions in heating the planet way back to the Nineteen Seventies. They drew parallels with 1994 hearings wherein cigarette trade executives appeared earlier than Congress and denied nicotine was addictive, triggering a wider shift in public opinion in opposition to Large Tobacco.

Maloney mentioned that Exxon scientists had informed executives within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s that burning fossil gasoline was altering the local weather. As an alternative of responding by transitioning to cleaner vitality sources, “Large Oil doubled down on fossil fuels”, she mentioned.

“Working with the American Petroleum Institute and the Chamber of Commerce and different entrance teams and [public relations] companies, the trade ran a co-ordinated marketing campaign to mislead the general public, conceal the hazards of its personal product and derail international efforts to scale back greenhouse-gas emissions,” the Democratic congresswoman mentioned.

The trade executives denied any effort to deceive the general public and pointed to the function performed by fossil fuels in financial development and the trade’s investments in applied sciences similar to carbon seize, hydrogen and biofuels.

“Some have sought to painting ExxonMobil’s coverage positions as local weather denialism and have baselessly claimed that ExxonMobil withheld data or unfold disinformation about local weather change. Neither cost is true,” chief government Darren Woods informed the committee.

Gretchen Watkins, president of Shell’s US division, mentioned offering dependable sources of vitality whereas tackling local weather change was “one of many defining challenges of our time”, however underlined the significance of fossil fuels within the trendy economic system.

“Gasoline is required to energy vans, airplanes and ships that transfer individuals across the globe. Petrochemicals are wanted for every part from clothes to cell telephones,” she mentioned.

The hearings laid naked the partisan break up over local weather change in Congress, with Republican members questioning the motivations of Democrats in holding the hearings and seizing on the chance to slam Joe Biden for rising gasoline costs.

“I’ve issues about right now’s listening to and the legitimacy of Democrats’ so-called investigation of America’s oil and gasoline firms,” mentioned James Comer, a Kentucky consultant and Republican rating member of the committee. “When are we going to carry a listening to with a Biden administration member so we are able to maintain the federal authorities accountable?”

The function of fossil fuels in contributing to greenhouse gasoline emissions has been introduced into focus forward of the UN COP26 local weather summit, which begins in Glasgow subsequent week.

Democratic lawmakers homed in on the disparity between US and European majors’ of their methods to chop emissions. California consultant Ro Khanna pressed Woods and Chevron chief Mike Wirth over their firms’ plans to extend output whereas their European counterparts sought to chop output.

That prompted an indignant retort from Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, who mentioned calling on American oil and gasoline firms to scale back manufacturing whereas the president was calling on members of the Opec+ cartel to pump more oil to be able to decrease costs “would be the dumbest factor I’ve ever heard”.

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