“It’s time fossil fuel billionaires pay for care and repair.”
Washington, DC — Led by Chairman Jamie Raskin, the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing today on “Examining the Oil Industry’s Efforts to Suppress the Truth about Climate Change.”
Witnesses testified to all that Exxon knew about climate change and when; how the company’s executives chose to bury the warning of its own scientists; and how this deception has devastated frontline communities and workers who have done the least to contribute to the climate crisis.
In response to today’s hearing, Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, 350.org North America Director, issued the following statement:
“Exxon hasn’t just polluted our environment, it has polluted our communities and our democracy. Today’s hearing is an important step in demonstrating how the climate crisis deepens racial injustice and public health challenges. Just like Big Tobacco, Exxon executives buried the warnings of its own scientists, bankrolled deniers as politicians and advocates for destruction, and spent millions blocking the transformative action that science and justice demand.
“Exxon has put us on a first-name basis with climate chaos: Sandy. Katrina. Maria. Harvey. Paradise lost. Communities who have done nothing to cause the climate crisis — poor communities, communities of color, Indigenous Peoples, and workers — are bearing the full cost of Exxon’s lies through lives and livelihoods. It’s time fossil fuel billionaires pay for care and repair.”
This further insight into Exxon’s corporate crimes comes on the second day of the People of New York versus. ExxonMobil trial, where Attorney General Letitia James is bringing Exxon to court for climate fraud.
A poll conducted earlier this year by Yale University’s Program on Climate Change Communications revealed that a majority of people in America believe fossil fuel companies should pay for the climate crisis.
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Contact: Lindsay Meiman, [email protected], +1 (347) 460-9082