House Democrats Celebrate High Gas Prices By Demonizing Oil Industry
House Democrats celebrated seven-year high gas prices Thursday with a show trial demonizing the use of fossil fuels.
By Tristan Justice
October 29, 2021
House Democrats celebrated seven-year-high gas prices Thursday with a show trial demonizing the widespread use of fossil fuels provided by an industry that has kept costs low.
Frequently invoking the big tobacco hearings three decades ago, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sought to indict oil executives as the primary culprits of climate change just as cigarettes are for cancer.
“Twenty-seven years ago, seven tobacco executives appeared in this room before Congress. Rather than admitting the truth about their product, the executives lied,” said Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., in her opening statement. “This was a watershed moment in the public’s understanding of big tobacco. I hope that today’s hearing represents a turning point for big oil.”
Maloney called the hearing with Environmental Subcommittee Chairman Ro Khanna, D-Calif., —both of whom have raked in thousands from oil and gas profits — for the explicit purpose of stigmatizing “big oil” as “big tobacco” with allegations the industry was engaged in a campaign to discredit claims of climate change.
“We are deeply concerned that the fossil fuel industry has reaped massive profits for decades while contributing to climate change that is devastating American communities, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, and ravaging the natural world,” they wrote in a September statement. “We are also concerned that to protect those profits, the industry has reportedly led a coordinated effort to spread disinformation to mislead the public and prevent crucial action to address climate change.”
Four companies and two trade groups were represented, including Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the American Petroleum Institute (API).
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https://thefederalist.com/2021/10/29/house-democrats-celebrate-high-gas-prices-by-demonizing-oil-industry/