Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin (D) will lead the first congressional hearing ever on Wednesday on the oil industry’s history of climate denial.
The House of Representatives Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, chaired by Raskin, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is vice chair, will be holding hearings into the fossil fuel industry’s early knowledge of their products’ contributions to climate change – and the industry’s multimillion-dollar campaign to undermine the science.
Scheduled to testify: Mustafa Ali, vice president for Environmental Justice Climate and Community Revitalization at the National Wildlife Federation; Ed Garvey, a former Exxon scientist; Martin Hoffert, a former Exxon consultant; Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard University History of Science professor; and Sharon Y. Eubanks, a lawyer who prosecuted cases against the tobacco industry.
Coincidentally, the hearing is starting as ExxonMobil goes on trial this week in New York, where the company has been charged by New York State Attorney General Leticia James (D) with securities fraud for failing to tell the truth to investors about how climate change threatens its assets.
“Oil companies behaved no differently from opioid manufacturers,” said Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity. “They knew their products would cause catastrophic harm, and instead of doing the right thing, they lied and paid front groups and scientists-for-hire to deceive the public, congress, and the media. They must be held accountable.”
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.