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By Kevin Killough, National Energy Journalist
[email protected]
The US House Committee on Oversight and Reform has dropped its report on a year-long investigation into the internal communications of major oil companies.
The survey promised to reveal the role of corporations in spreading “climate misinformation” and resistance to taking action to tackle climate change.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, who led the investigation, told E&E News ahead of the report that the investigation’s findings would be a resource for climate activism over the next decade.
Results
The report the committee released last week came without any press conferences and produced no explosive revelations.
Among the findings, according to a statement on the report, big oil companies have no real intention of depriving people of natural gas, which currently provides 32% of US energy consumption and a quarter of global energy consumption.
Highlights of the report revealed that Chevron CEO Mike Wirth delivered a slide presentation in which the oil and gas company would “continue to invest” in oil and gas production.
An internal email from the Petroleum Institute showed that the organization would continue “in a low-carbon economy” to promote natural gas, which has been a major driver of declining carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. United States to the levels they were at in the early 1990s.
Big “Nothingburger”
“Despite a year-long investigation, the House Oversight Committee report was a giant nothing that only found that American oil and gas companies are focused on producing oil and natural gas,” Will Allison said. , spokesperson for Energy In Depth, to the Cowboy State Daily. .
Energy In Depth is an online resource from the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
Ryan McConnaughey, spokesman for the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said the investigation was a waste of their time.
The “report shows there was nothing to it, and even the president had to admit it. So they were just trying to make something out of nothing,” McConnaughey said.
Khanna told NBC News and E&E News that part of the intent of the investigation was to take all documents acquired through subpoenas and give them to “those with more resources” who could act on the information.
Who exactly would be those with more resources, Khanna said neither publication.
“The fact remains that the industry continues to provide the energy our country and the world need, and it’s doing it cleaner than ever before,” Allison said.
Mixed messages
The survey is part of a series of mixed messages in which the oil and gas industry is vilified for producing oil and gas, then criticized for not producing enough to drive down energy prices.
Members of the committee, including Khanna, quizzed oil executives at a hearing in October 2021 on whether they had committed to cutting oil and gas production.
Khanna asked the CEOs if they were “embarrassed” to produce oil.
The following March, as gas prices soared, Khanna told Bloomberg that oil and gas companies needed to increase production to reduce energy costs.
He would continue to blame their lack of production on gas prices until last summer, while at the same time threatening to raise taxes.
“This is just one example of the administration and members of Congress knowing that people can’t live without oil and gas, but need a villain for their storyline to help prop up their campaign coffers. and getting money from their donors,” McConnaughey said.
Risky investments
He said the mixed messages are having a detrimental effect on the industry as investors need a certain level of certainty before putting their money on the line. Constant threats and increasing regulatory burden increase risk and scare off capital .
“That’s really what the damage is here,” McConnaughey said.
Allison said there are a lot of people in Congress who think oil companies can just increase production in the short term when gas prices get too high, but the structure of investment in the industry requires much more commitments. long to get a return.
They just don’t seem to understand that, Allison said.
“Throughout this investigation, committee Democrats pushed mixed messages, attacking the industry for ramping up production one day, while lamenting record high gasoline prices the next,” Allison said. “Now that this charade is over, it’s time to work together to enable a strong American energy sector.”
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