House Oversight Committee Puts Political Agenda Above Energy Security

After 14 months and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform has released more internal oil and gas industry documents showing the shocking findings that America’s oil and natural gas companies want to continue producing oil and gas.

With the full authority of the U.S. federal government behind it, the Oversight Committee’s Democratic leadership’s 31-page report reveals little of substance and even less of interest.

Market realities – and global security – show that investing in fossil fuels is what these companies should be doing. The Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook expects petroleum and natural gas to continue to be the most in-demand fuels in the United States through 2050. The International Energy Agency, meanwhile, forecasts that although the share of fossil fuels in the global energy mix will decline, it will still be above 60% in 2050.

What’s especially troubling about efforts to shut down domestic energy production is that demand isn’t falling. More than 2.5 billion people worldwide currently live in energy poverty. In the United States alone, a third of families struggle to pay their energy bills.

Even those advocating to end of fossil fuels acknowledge their importance. The Biden administration recently renewed its pledge to ship more U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the UK and Europe to reduce the global dependence on Russian energy exports.

Instead of working with American energy producers to meet global demand, Democrats on the Oversight Committee are attempting to score political points with this report. This shortsighted perspective on energy policy prevents policymakers from recognizing the contributions of a major U.S. industry to both energy security and environmental protection – including reducing carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.

The oil and gas industry has collaborated with the U.S. Department of Energy to increase production and shrink its environmental footprint for decades, but you wouldn’t know that from the hot air emanating from Capitol Hill.

Instead of championing public policy to address the ongoing energy crunch and runaway inflation, House Democrats think a better use of their time is to attack publicly held companies for doing what their shareholders expect of them.

These are the same elected officials who paint any investment energy companies make in carbon reduction technologies as “greenwashing.”

The oil and gas industry has invested far more in reducing carbon emissions and other environmental impacts of production and use than all the environmental organizations combined. After all, it’s in their self-interest to do so. That investment has been made with private dollars rather than public tax dollars, by the way.

We can’t develop and deploy the advanced technologies we need to meet the ambitious climate targets set out by this and other administrations without a strong economy and affordable energy resources. The current global energy crisis should make that fact self-evident.

There’s nothing contradictory about producing the traditional energy resources the world continues to demand while making investments to reduce the environmental impacts of that energy. Indeed, it actually makes sense.

Major oil and natural gas companies have adapted their business models to embrace the transition to low-carbon energy. That includes clean energy investments requested by shareholders and the public.

ExxonMobilXOM
has announced efforts to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions at its operations by 2050 and has vowed to make $15 billion worth of lower-emission investments through 2027.

ChevronCVX
has pledged to triple its low-carbon energy and technology investment to $10 billion through 2028 and bought the sustainable fuels company Renewable EnergyREGI
Group for $3.15 billion earlier this year, as well as invested in a number of startups tied to the energy transition.

Shell Oil named Wael Sawan, an executive with a strong track record in renewable energy, as its new CEO. Sawan, who takes over in January, will build on the company’s strong record of investing in renewable energy projects. At the same time, Shell is investing in developing oil resources in Malaysia.

The oil and gas industry’s achievements in emissions reductions and commitments to combatting climate change are the results of huge investments that lawmakers should support. The energy sector is proving that it can produce the oil and gas we will need in the coming decades maintain energy security and affordability, while also investing in technologies and resources to reduce the carbon intensity of the economy.

Hopefully, after spending thousands of staff-hours and unknown amounts of public dollars, House Oversight leaders will admit that the U.S. energy industry is part of the solution, and that its success can help our nation’s economy, global security, and decarbonization goals.