House Democrats asked three major fossil fuel companies to testify about whether or not the industry has done enough to lower gas prices. Of course, Democrats are using the Russian war against Ukraine to excuse the rising gas prices here at home, despite the fact that for years they have actively derailed and squashed any opportunities for the United States to become energy independent.
“While American families struggle to shoulder the burden of rising gas prices from Putin’s war on Ukraine, fossil fuel companies are not doing enough to relieve pain at the pump, instead lining their pockets with one hand while sitting on the other,” Democrats Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette said in a joint statement Tuesday.
Three major U.S. fossil fuel companies, however, rejected the invitation. Daily Caller News Foundation reports EOG Resources, Devon Energy Corporation and Occidental Petroleum all informed Natural Resources Committee leadership that they would skip the hearing that was planned for April 5, the panel’s chairman, Arizona Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva, announced Tuesday evening.
Grijalva had sent letters to the energy companies on March 18, “asking their CEOs to appear at the hearing to discuss why gasoline prices were so high.” Making the companies, in addition to Russia, the scapegoats, Grijalva stated, “As rising gas prices started hurting Americans, fossil fuel industry trade groups and their allies in Congress wasted no time placing blame on the Biden administration and pushing for a drilling free-for-all.”
“But when you look at oil companies’ record profits, these claims don’t add up.”
“I invited these companies to come before the Committee and make their case, but apparently they don’t think it’s worth defending,” he added. “Their silence tells us all we need to know—that cries for more drilling and looser regulations are nothing more than another age-old attempt to line their own pockets.”
Grijalva said he was “concerned that the oil industry is not doing enough to protect American consumers” when he requested the companies appear at the hearing.
Devon Energy declined Grijalva’s request, but they did accept a similar invitation from Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone to appear at an April 6 hearing on price gouging. “Executives from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Pioneer Natural Resources and Shell will also testify” reports DCNF.
