A California congressman and two other representatives demanded Wednesday the government investigate Royal Dutch Shell for deceiving the public about the alleged dangers associated with man-made global warming.
Democratic congressmen California Rep.[crscore]Ted Lieu[/crscore], along side Vermont Rep. [crscore]Peter Welch[/crscore] and Pennsylvania Rep. [crscore]Matt Cartwright[/crscore], sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch urging the country’s top attorney open an investigation of Shell’s history regarding climate change.
The three congressmen argued there might be “a conspiracy between Shell, ExxonMobil and potentially other companies in the fossil fuel industry.” They also noted in the letter a belief that the Netherlands-based oil company funded climate change deniers.
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) successfully prosecuted tobacco companies for colluding within their industry to deliberately mislead the public,” the letter reads. “We ask that the DOJ similarly investigate Shell for participating with ExxonMobil’s sustained deception on climate science.”
The demands for an examination of Shell come as a result of a September investigation of ExxonMobil conducted by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times. The investigation found that Exxon was not the only company allegedly playing fast and loose with information about global warming.
InsideClimate News alleged that ExxonMobil was joined by Amoco, Phillips, Texaco, Shell, and others, in misleading the public about the supposed effects global warming has on sea levels.
“Ted Lieu and the other signatories of this letter are providing the kind of leadership that the American people both need and deserve from our elected officials,” Brad Johnson, executive director of Climate Hawks Vote, told reporters Friday.
He added: “Exxon deserves the reputation as the ringleader, but in the fossil fuel industry, all of the companies have engaged and participated in this process.”
Shell argues the investigation is bunkum, suggesting further that the company has a well-trodden stance against global warming.
“Shell’s public position on climate change and the challenge CO2 poses is well known and can be documented for over a decade through publications such as the Shell Annual Report and the Shell Sustainability Report,” Shell officials said in a statement.
“Recognizing the climate challenge and the role energy has in enabling a decent quality of life, we continue to pursue and advance constructive dialogue on this topic as the challenge is one for all of society,” the statement reads.
Shell officials, in an attempt to burnish their global warming warrior bona fides, noted in a letter addressed to the head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that carbons taxes “should be a key element” of addressing global warming on an international scale.
You can read the representatives’ letter here:
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