WASHINGTON - Last Friday, the counsel of 350.org and Greenpeace USA sent a letter to Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Science Committee, after he rejected the groups’ request to include Minority members in conversations around his overreaching subpoena concerning Exxon’s decades-long climate change deception campaign.

Decades ago, Exxon’s own scientists warned the company’s executives about the dangers of fossil fuel use on our climate and our communities. Instead of heeding these warnings, Exxon’s executives poured the company’s resources into sowing doubt and orchestrating a campaign to mislead the public on the fossil fuel industry’s role contributing to climate change.

Just last week, NASA and NOAA officially confirmed July 2016 as the hottest month in history, marking it is as the fifteenth consecutive hottest month ever.

May Boeve, 350.org Executive Director said:

“Even as Representative Smith’s home state of Texas is hit with record flooding, and extreme weather events like floods in Louisiana and wildfires in California force mass evacuations, this House Science Committee still has its head in the sand. Our elected officials and candidates should be supporting the communities impacted by climate change, not backing Exxon and the fossil fuel industry that is responsible for perpetuating this very devastation.”

Annie Leonard, Greenpeace USA Executive Director said:

“As Representative Lamar Smith continues his baseless crusade against attorneys general and nonprofit organizations, Greenpeace and 350.org have remained steadfast in our willingness to participate in a bipartisan meeting with his entire Committee to discuss Exxon’s colossal climate denial scheme. Chairman Smith’s unwillingness to grant these requests has made it quite clear that he is only out to advance a partisan political agenda against anyone who dare question Exxon’s potential fraud. While Chairman Smith has made the decision to proceed with his subpoena without the involvement of any minority committee members, we will only consider a meeting if all members are invited to weigh in on the urgent threat of climate change and Exxon’s contribution to it.”

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