The House Oversight and Reform Committee is extending a new deadline to March 8 for a group of five Big Oil executives to testify as part of an investigation of fossil fuel misinformation. The committee sent letters Feb. 3 to Exxon Mobil, BP, and Chevron after they declined to appear at a planned Feb. 8 hearing. Jane Holl Lute, a Shell board member, said she would be willing to testify but declined after some others refused, according to the committee. The panel will reschedule the hearing for March 8. The full committee will hold a separate hearing with climate science experts on Feb. 8. “The Big Oil companies should consider the March hearing their last chance to cooperate,” Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) said in a statement. The other invitees were Alexander Karsner and Susan Avery of Exxon, Melody Meyer of BP, and Enrique Hernandez of Chevron. The hearings are part of a larger investigation into the industry’s past science denial and obstruction of climate policy. Top executives from four companies testified in October, alongside officials with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute. Maloney subpoenaed all six for documents days later. The newest letters ask the companies to turn over all relevant documents by March 8. The companies say the issue is scheduling, not refusing to cooperate. “We have been in regular communication with the committee since last summer and have provided staff with hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, including board materials and internal communications,” said Exxon spokesman Casey Norton. (Source: Energywire 02/04/22) Democrats give oil leaders 'last chance' to testify - E&E News (eenews.net)
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