House Democrats took aim at major oil companies’ climate pledges during an Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday after company board members declined to appear.
The hearing replaced the committee’s initial plans to have board members from ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell testify after the committee said last week that four out of five invitees declined to appear on the scheduled date.
Instead, the lawmakers brought in experts and advocates, who criticized the companies’ promises as insufficient as they anticipate continued use of fossil fuels.
The lawmakers, too, criticized the companies, saying that plans to continue and in many cases expand fossil fuel production are incompatible with fighting climate change.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, burning fossil fuels is the biggest contributor to climate change.
The companies have said that they want to reduce the “carbon intensity” of their fossil fuels – meaning that the fuels themselves will release less carbon dioxide into the air.
Panel witness Michael Mann, a Pennsylvania State University atmospheric science professor, said that with increased production, doing this would be similar to eating more potato chips but selecting a lower-fat variety.
“They love to talk about how they are going to decrease the carbon intensity of their fossil fuels. That’s sort of like your doctor telling you that you need to cut fat from your diet and so you switch to 40 percent reduced-fat potato chips, but you eat twice as many of them,” Mann said.
“That doesn’t help … and that’s effectively what fossil fuel interests are doing,” he added.
Chevron and Exxon particularly came under fire for including releases of planet-warming gasses only from their operations, and not from the burning of their products to power cars or generate electricity, in their carbon neutrality pledges.
The fuels’ use, not their production, is responsible for the vast majority of their emissions.
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So, besides vilifying energy PRODUCERS, what clean, scalable, sustainable & affordable alternative did Dr. Mann suggest to REPLACE 80% of our domestic primary energy? I might add that in modern dietary, SUGAR is considered a lot more detrimental in generating disease than FAT. Seems like he is not fully informed on a couple counts. At least he is CONSISTENT…
Once again we see the Stupid Jackass Party(Liberal Democrats)choosing to target the Oil Companies instead of their own stupid Regulations and Red Tape