Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna was met with silence from the oil trade executives when he requested them to inform the American Petroleum Institute and different teams to cease lobbying in opposition to electrical autos and methane rules – two initiatives the oil corporations themselves assist.
“You might do one thing right here,” stated Khanna, who chairs the Home Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on the Surroundings. “You may inform them to knock it off for the sake of the planet. You might finish that lobbying. Would any of you’re taking that chance to have a look at API and say ‘cease it?’”
The committee room fell silent.
“Any of you?” he requested. “May you commit? Any of you?”
No CEO responded to Khanna’s query.
The Democrat from California additionally requested fossil gasoline corporations to decide to having an impartial audit to confirm none of their funding was going towards teams spreading local weather denial, and was once more met with silence.
Many oil corporations are members of the American Petroleum Institute, which has been lobbying in opposition to sure initiatives which can be a part of President Joe Biden’s financial and local weather agenda framework.
Khanna later requested Shell Oil president Gretchen Watkins to decide to not funding “any group that’s going to have interaction in local weather disinformation.”
“Chairman Khanna, what I’ll decide to is constant to be an lively member of the API,” Watkins stated.
Chevron Company CEO Michael Wirth stated, “We don’t management and should not at all times agree with the positions taken or statements made by trade teams and different organizations. We interact in constructive dialogue.”
