US inquiry exposes Exxon, other oil companies’ role in downplaying climate change

Mar 28, 2022 News

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Kaieteur News – An expanded inquiry by United States lawmakers into the role played by big oil companies to dissuade citizens from believing in climate change is not only proving that ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron knew about the devastating effects their trade was going to have on the environment, since the early 80s, but that they engaged in well-orchestrated action to convince people that climate change is not real.
In September of last year, the United States (US) House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee said it was going deeper into the oil industry’s role in fostering doubt about the role of fossil fuels in causing climate change. February last, the Committee on Oversight and Reform’s inquiry, chaired by Representative Carolyn Maloney, found that oil companies engaged in “green washing” campaigns that involved downplaying the seriousness of climate change through misinformation and propaganda tactics, slothfulness in remedial efforts and the continued increase in emissions despite the need to reach net zero emissions by 2050 to avoid a climate catastrophe.
According to the House’s report, experts who testified at this hearing ranged from among others, an atmospheric scientist, policy analyst and policy lawyer. Dr. Michael Mann, Professor of Atmospheric Science at University of Pennsylvania said, “ExxonMobil’s own scientists, in a secret 1982 report that was never released to the public, made remarkably accurate predictions of both the rise that we would see in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the planetary warming that would result given business as usual extraction and burning of fossil fuels.” Mann said they even used the word “catastrophic” to describe the potential impacts of that warming.
“But rather than come forward with what their own scientists had concluded, they engaged in a campaign of denial and delay which continues on today.” In the US, Mann said, “We are now paying the extreme opportunity cost of that delay in the form of withering heat waves, more destructive tornado outbreaks, wildfires, and floods exacerbated by climate change.”
Mann charged that whether it is the apocalyptic wildfires that ravaged California and the west, a heat dome over the Pacific Northwest that made parts of Canada hot like Phoenix, the devastating floods in Pennsylvania, or the remnants of climate change-fueled hurricane Ida, “it is clear that dangerous climate change is upon us… and is costing the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars a year.”
Mark van Baal, Founder of Follow This, a group of over 8,000 green shareholders in oil and gas companies pushing for change, said that if oil companies claim to be in an energy transition, then they would pivot to other sources of energy and spend at least 50percent of their investments in this new clean energy business model. “But these companies with their small amounts—which by the way are most of the time smaller than their marketing amounts—risk being the Kodaks of the 21st Century.”
Van Baal said too, that shareholders sent an unequivocal message. “We need oil majors to cut emissions. However, Shell, BP, Chevron, and Exxon still intend to grow their emissions this decade, and they have no intentions to stop doing so.” He compared fossil fuel companies’ tactics to that of tobacco companies that pledge to prohibit smoking while continuing to produce and sell cigarettes.
Dr. Mann said he too understands that the oil companies plan to increase exploration. “My understanding is that they (oil companies) actually plan to continue to expand fossil fuel exploration in the years ahead. And that is actually, fundamentally, inconsistent with what the International Energy Agency, a pretty conservative body, has said, that if we are to stabilize warming below catastrophic levels, there can be no new fossil fuel infrastructure.”
Exxon Mobil in Guyana plans to significantly increase its oil productions in the next three years. Greg Hill, Hess’ Chief Operating Officer has said that Guyana has the potential for six FPSOs producing more than one million gross barrels of oil per day at the Stabroek Block by 2027. The country has the potential for up to 10 FPSOs to develop the gross discovered recoverable resources currently estimated at more than 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
However, Guyanese are still demanding assurances, that should any environmental hazard, such as a spill occur, Guyana would be covered by ExxonMobil. The oil company had said its associate firm operating in the Stabroek block was covered by $2B. Environmentalist and other stakeholders have argued that the sum is inadequate, and that Exxon must commit to further assurances that would protect the environment.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo gave government’s commitment Thursday that a separate document would be issued to Exxon, which ensures a guarantee is secured, should an oil spill occur. He said the permit for the Yellowtail development which is expected to come on stream in 2024 is expected to be stronger than any. Three operations, the Liza One, Liza Two and Payara have been granted approval, without guarantees in place from Exxon to shield Guyana beyond the US$2B sum in the event of a spill.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States said that with 80 percent of people living on the coast and more than 70 percent economic activity happening there, Guyana is particularly vulnerable to rising sea–level stemming from climate change, plus regional shifts in the height of the sea. It was forecasted that Georgetown is among nine other cities around the world that would be under water by 2030.

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