ICYMI: THE NEW YORK TIMES REPORTS ON NEW EXPLOSIVE DOCUMENTS RELEASED BY KHANNA, MALONEY AS PART OF BIG OIL INVESTIGATION

Washington, D.C. — In case you missed it, the New York Times published an article by Hiroko Tabuchi detailing the explosive new documents obtained by Rep. Ro Khanna, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment, and Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, as part of an ongoing joint investigation into Big Oil's efforts to mislead the American public about their role in the climate crisis.

The internal emails and messaging guidance show that Big Oil's climate pledges rely on unproven technology, accounting gimmicks and misleading language to hide the reality. The documents also show a culture of intense disrespect towards leading climate activists and influential climate groups.

Full text of the article can be found here and excerpts from the article are below.

Oil Executives Privately Contradicted Public Statements on Climate, Files Show By Hiroko Tabuchi

[…] On Thursday, the House committee is expected to discuss some of its early findings. "It's well established that these companies actively misled the American public for decades about the risks of climate change," said Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California who spearheaded the investigation with Carolyn B. Maloney, the New York Democrat who leads the House committee. "The problem is that they continue to mislead," Mr. Khanna said.

[…] Separate files from Exxon show the company grappling with a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign promoting the potential for fuels made from algae. The campaign focused on the promise of the technology and featured images of vast pools of algae, along with a scientist looking forward to calling herself an "energy farmer."

A set of presentation notes that had been prepared for a September 2018 engineering talk by one of its executives stated that the technology is "still decades away from the scale we need." And in a November 2016 email, an Exxon employee said that an early draft for the ad, prepared by the advertising agency BBDO Worldwide, needed to "replace any lines that imply the technology is live today."

[…] At Thursday's hearing, members also plan to highlight emails that appear to show oil executives making light of climate extreme-heat records. In an August 2017 email exchange, for example, two BP executives found humor in the news at the time that scientists had reported Earth's warmest year on record.

"I'll buy the first round Monday night before we say our goodbyes," Joe Ellis, then BP vice president and head of U.S. government affairs, wrote to colleagues.

"A ‘hot toddy' maybe?" Bob Stout, then vice president and head of regulatory affairs, wrote back. […]

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