Create a Congressional Climate Tribunal to investigate corporate deniers

What did Exxon know, and when did they know it?

As disruption from the human-caused climate crisis worsens, there will be a great debate over who is responsible for failing to respond in a timely way.

The fossil fuel industry will promote the notion that we are all responsible for climate change, and that they are simply meeting a consumer need. But this ignores the industry’s role in manipulating public opinion, its regulatory capture of government agencies and the advanced knowledge it had of the harms caused by extracting and burning carbon and methane.  

Congress should form a tribunal with subpoena powers to investigate the role of big oil, gas and coal corporations in funding and fomenting climate denial, lobbying to block energy alternatives, and thrusting humanity onto a path toward an uninhabitable earth.

Several dozen corporations have reaped windfall profits for decades while running out the clock for effective action. Reuters reported that Big Oil also doubled its profits in 2022.

In recent years, we have learned that major fossil fuel energy companies, including Exxon and Shell, have known about the dangers of burning fossil fuels for decades. For more than 30 years, they knew what scientists are now telling us — that we must halt construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure and rapidly transition to a renewable energy future.

In other words, a few dozen corporations bear disproportionate responsibility for the impossible choices that humanity is now facing. We need a national tribunal to determine their level of culpability and corruption. 

Such a commission could subpoena the internal studies these companies did on carbon and methane emissions. It could investigate how they deployed lobbyists and funded think tanks to promote climate denial and sham science. It could delve into the nature of the political capture of regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It could explore what alternative energy measures — such as fuel efficiency standards and investments in wind, solar and other renewables — the industry actively lobbied against, and who were the primary decision-makers in this process?

This is not an exercise in merely looking backward. The crime is currently in progress. As you read this, major fossil fuel energy corporations and their financial enablers are making multi-billion-dollar investments in new fossil fuel infrastructure. The Guardian has identified 195 “carbon bomb” projects that would each emit a billion tons of carbon over their lifetime. If half of these projects are implemented, they will burn enough carbon to blow humanity not only past a 1.5 degree C (2.7 F) increase in temperatures, but toward an uninhabitable earth.

A national tribunal would likely uncover efforts presently underway by corporations to continue extracting carbon and methane assets, even though U.S. and global experts have warned that burning these assets will push planet earth into uninhabitable territory. It could fully lay bare their current carbon assets and the new fossil fuel infrastructure they are building. Are they conducting exploration research on new oil and gas deposits? How are they deploying political contributions and lobbying resources right now to oppose green energy transitions? 

A commission could explore the different levels of responsibility and the corruption of our political system. With President Biden’s approval of the Willow oil and gas project in Alaska, we see the continuing bipartisan capture of our political system by big oil and gas.

The fossil fuel industry will argue that we as consumers and our elected politicians are responsible for burning their product and releasing its carbon. But if our elected officials had known what Shell and Exxon knew two or three decades ago, we could have rapidly shifted off of burning fossil fuels, increased conservation measures, and invested in green technologies.  For example, in a recent PBS Frontline documentary, The Power of Big Oil, former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said he would have voted in support of 2009 “cap and trade” legislation if he had known what the industry was hiding at the time.

And if we as consumers had known what Exxon and Shell knew, we could have made different personal choices and demanded action from our elected officials. Only a thorough investigation can reveal the extent to which fossil fuel industry lobbying limited our options for cleaner energy, electric vehicles, and the like as far back as the turn of the century. Think how much closer we could be to net zero today.

We owe ourselves and the world a deeper understanding of these irresponsible actions perpetrated by a couple dozen global corporations. That’s why we need a special tribunal to investigate their actions.

Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org. His latest book is a novel, “Altar to an Erupting Sun,” an eco-fiction exploration of the causes of climate disruption.