Oil companies do nothing to save climate-US
2022.12.09 13:02
Oil companies do nothing to save climate-US
Budrigannews.com – A US House panel said in response to documents that were released on Friday that it got in a probe that major energy companies are not doing enough to prevent the worst effects of climate change, despite public promises to fight the problem.
Late last year, following a hearing in which they were questioned about their response to climate change, Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform subpoenaed major oil executives for the documents, which included internal corporate emails.
The panel stated that many of the documents showed major oil companies discussing the strategy of selling off or divesting oil and gas fields to smaller businesses in order to reduce their own emissions. This move, the panel stated, simply transfers emissions to the next company without reducing them.
In 2019 for example, Jack Collins, a then-leader for BPX, the coastal oil and gas unit of BP (NYSE:), in an internal email to another company official, the company’s plan to reduce emissions through a solar pump project was explained.
According to the documents, Collins wrote, “However, we have elected to halt nearly all of these projects in light of our divestment plans.”
Shell (London:), In an internal email regarding divesting from assets in Canada’s oil sands, spokesperson Curtis Smith stated: It is true that when we divest, we transfer CO2 liability.
In the email, he stated, “It’s no different, however, when we are denied access to resources in the United States (or elsewhere) and that energy need is then met with resources in a country that (likely) has far fewer regulations than we do in a modern, civilized society.”
In an email response to the documents obtained by the House panel, a colleague of Smith stated: Instead of divesting, what exactly are we supposed to do? “Pour concrete over the oil sands and burn the deed to the land so that nobody can buy them?
A request for comment was made, but BP did not respond immediately.
According to Shell’s Smith, the House panel’s investigation did not uncover evidence of a climate deception campaign.
According to Smith, “the Committee chose to highlight the few subpoenaed documents from Shell are evidence of the company’s extensive efforts to set aggressive targets, transform its portfolio, and meaningfully participate in the ongoing energy transition.”
The American Petroleum Institute’s 2021 climate change strategy is also organized around “the continued promotion of in a carbon constrained economy,” according to the documents.
In an internal email, API chief Mike Sommers stated that carbon capture and storage technology and emissions reduction measures like methane flaring at production fields could further secure fossil fuel drilling’s “license to operate.”
A request for comment was made to the API, but it took some time to respond.
The committee’s chair, Representative Carolyn Maloney, stated that the executives admitted in testimony to the panel last year that oil and gas production is contributing to a climate emergency but have been doing too little about it.
“Today’s new evidence demonstrates that these businesses are prioritizing Big Oil’s record profits over the human costs of climate change despite knowing that their climate pledges are inadequate.”
The documents were made public after Democrats lost control of the House in the elections in November. When Republicans take control of the House at the beginning of January, they will no longer be able to direct the panel’s investigations.
Additionally, the administration of President Joe Biden has repeatedly urged oil and gas drillers to increase production in order to assist allies in Russia’s war against Ukraine and safeguard domestic consumers from high energy bills. The release comes after the administration of President Joe Biden.
On September 14, a memo from the House committee showed that major oil companies had “greenwashed” their climate change record “through deceptive advertising and climate pledges – without meaningfully reducing emissions.”
