The Texas Republican leading a probe into state attorneys general who are investigating oil giant Exxon Mobil called the Obama administration’s decision to jump in a “desperate” ploy to save a failed public relations stunt.
Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said Tuesday that the investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission is an attempt to revive a flailing probe of the oil giant. The company confirmed Tuesday that the SEC is investigating its valuation of crude oil and natural gas reserves and its preparations for how climate change will affect its bottom line.
“The Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent announcement to investigate Exxon Mobil’s accounting practices marks the latest attempt to suppress legitimate science inquiry that does not conform with the Obama administration’s political agenda,” Smith said.
The SEC began investigating the energy giant in August, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The company is being investigated for not changing the valuation of its oil and gas reserves in the wake of plummeting energy prices during the last two years.
Exxon Mobil is the only major oil and gas company that does not revise the value of its oil and gas reserves in times of lowered prices, the paper reported.
The company also is being investigated for how it figures climate change, and how governments around the globe are reacting to the warming of the globe, will affect its business.
Exxon Mobil has been under pressure since last year’s publication of a story by Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times reporting that the company knew burning fossil fuels would cause global temperatures to rise and worked to bury that science. Exxon Mobil has denied those reports.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey have opened state investigations into whether Exxon Mobil defrauded its investors by burying knowledge of global warming. Those investigations are, in turn, the subject of a federal investigation by Smith’s committee.
Smith said the investigations by Healey and Schneiderman, the only two attorneys general out of 20 who promised to use their powers to investigate what Exxon Mobil knew about climate change and when, are failing.
The SEC investigation is an attempt by the Obama administration to cover for its state allies, he said.
“While the ‘Green 20’ state attorneys general continue to flounder in their misguided attempts to suppress the scientific speech of innocent scientists, scholars, nonprofits and companies by pursuing frivolous fraud investigations, the administration sees the writing on the wall,” Smith said.
“With no one left to do its bidding, an SEC investigation seems like the natural, if not desperate, next step by the administration to intimidate scientific research.”
Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, told the Washington Examiner the company plans to fully cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.
“The SEC is the appropriate entity to examine issues related to impairment, reserves and other communications important to investors,” Jeffers said in an email. “We are fully complying with the SEC request for information and are confident our financial reporting meets all legal and accounting requirements.”
