Representative Jamie Raskin and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse Call on Attorney General Garland to “to investigate Big Oil for its decades-long disinformation campaign to mislead the public about the climate effects of fossil fuels and obstruct climate action.”
Washington, D.C. — Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Jamie Raskin today formally referred an ongoing congressional investigation into the fossil fuel industry’s climate deception to the Department of Justice for further investigation.
The referral comes weeks after the Congress members released a joint report featuring “new documents exposing the fossil fuel industry’s role in spreading climate disinformation and preventing action on climate change.”
During a Senate Budget Committee hearing on May 1, Sharon Eubanks, the former director of the Tobacco Litigation Team at the Department of Justice, told lawmakers that there was “solid evidentiary basis” for a federal investigation of Big Oil, similar to the lawsuit that DOJ successfully brought against tobacco companies.
Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement:
“This is the most substantive and consequential call yet for the Justice Department to take action against Big Oil companies for their ongoing and catastrophic campaign of lies. In a nation of laws, powerful corporations must not be allowed to lie to the public with impunity — especially when those lies cause great harm to public health and safety. The DOJ has unique powers that must be engaged to stop the oil industry from lying and force it to tell the truth about its role in causing and perpetuating the climate crisis.
“We applaud Senator Whitehouse and Representative Raskin for assembling this evidence of Big Oil’s fraud and urging the Justice Department to act. As states and communities across the country are fighting in court to hold fossil fuel companies accountable, it’s time for the nation’s top law enforcement agency to stand up for the American people and bring this renegade industry to justice.”
Background on Previous Congressional Calls for DOJ Action Against Big Oil
Last summer, nearly two dozen House and Senate members wrote letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Department of Justice to either investigate or sue Exxon, Shell, and other fossil fuel companies for violating fraud, racketeering, and other federal laws.
Background on State and Local Climate Accountability Lawsuits Against Big Oil
The attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia, as well as dozens of municipal governments in California, Colorado, Hawai`i, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico, and two tribal governments, have filed lawsuits to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about their products’ role in climate change. Earlier this month, the attorney general of Michigan announced plans to pursue similar litigation against fossil fuel companies.