Congressional Dems Investigating Why Big Oil Is 'Only Winner' in Clean Car Standard Rollbacks

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House Democrats in the Energy andย Commerce Committee are actively investigating the oil industryโ€™s role in shaping the Trump administrationโ€™s proposed rollback of greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for cars and light dutyย trucks.

On the eve of todayโ€™s joint hearing of two House Energy and Commerce Subcommitteesย on the proposed rollback, Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. and the chairs of the Subcommittees on Consumer Protection and Commerce and on Environment and Climate Change announced the investigation.

Along withย Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowskyย and Environment and Climate Change Chairย Paul Tonko, Palloneย sent letters to oil and gas companies, trade groups, and advocacy groups demanding information on their contacts with the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding their support of the administrationโ€™s proposed Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles rule. The Congressional leaders also asked for information about โ€œthe troubling, secret lobbying and social media campaign that reportedly occurred leading up to its release,โ€ as they wrote in theย letter.

Letters were sent to Marathon Petroleum, the American Fuelย &ย Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Energy4US, and Americans for Prosperity.

The covert social media and lobbying campaign described in the letters was firstย exposed in a December 2018ย New York Times investigation, which described how Marathon Petroleum and the AFPM worked with other advocacy groups to circulate letters to Congress and the administrative agencies to support a rollback of the standards that is stronger even than the automakers wereย seeking.

The New York Times also revealed that AFPM launched an unregistered, unincorporated front group called Energy4US, which ran Facebook ads asking supporters to โ€œSupport Our Presidentโ€™s Car Freedom Agendaโ€ and sending form comments to the DOT.

Researchers at DeSmog’s KochvsClean project connected the front group to more than one-quarter of all public comments that the DOT had received on the proposed rule, while also revealing that the Consumer Energy Alliance was connected to theย campaign.

Records provided to The New York Times by the watchdog group Documented also revealed Marathonโ€™s efforts to gain support from Republican state legislators for the proposed standardsย rollbacks.

Additionally,ย researchers at Documented have since surfaced records that revealed that AFPM was recruiting Republican Governors to sign onto a public comment letter supporting the weaker fuel efficiency standards. Back in January, DeSmog described AFPM‘s efforts in deep detail, efforts that also includedย โ€œshopping aroundโ€ a pre-written op-ed with language borrowed from the American Energy Alliance, a free market advocacy group run by a former Koch Industries lobbyist.ย 

‘Lack of cooperation, lack of documents, lack of disclosure’ย from DOT and EPA

Pallone said on Wednesday that โ€œthe oil industry is the only winnerโ€ from the revised rules, and reiterated that it was his committeeโ€™s oversight responsibility to figure out why the agencies settled on a rule that, according to the letters his office sent, โ€œwould harm public health and welfare by increasing tailpipe emissionsโ€ and โ€œincrease U.S. petroleum consumption by 500,000 barrels perย day.โ€

The letters to the oil groups follow a series of letters sent by various Democratic members of Congress to the DOT and EPA demanding similar records. At the hearing Thursday morning, Rep. Pallone chastised National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration head Heidi King and the EPA air chief Bill Wehrum for their agenciesโ€™ lack of transparency and for refusing to yet provide records of meetings and communications with Marathon, AFPM, andย other oil-funded advocacyย groups.

Representative Dianaย DeGette of Colorado, Chair of Commerce’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee,ย blasted the agencies’ โ€œlack of cooperation, lack of documents, and lack ofย disclosure.โ€

Rep. Pallone and his Energy and Commerce colleagues hope to use their Congressional authority to secure the information that the agencies have notย released.

Below are copies of the letters that wereย sent:

As part of theย investigation, the Congressional leadersย requestedย copies of all communications related to the proposed rollback between the oil industry and any current or former EPA, NHTSA, and Executive Office of the President (EOP)ย officials, giving the industry groups aย July 3, 2019ย deadline.ย 

Main image: House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone, Jr. during Thursday’s hearing on the Trump administration clean car standards rollback. Source: Energy and Commerce Committee, Publicย Domain

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Ben Jervey is a Senior Fellow for DeSmog and directs the KochvsClean.com project. He is a freelance writer, editor, and researcher, specializing in climate change and energy systems and policy. Ben is also a Research Fellow at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School. He was the original Environment Editor for GOOD Magazine, and wrote a longstanding weekly column titled โ€œThe New Ideal: Building the clean energy economy of the 21st Century and avoiding the worst fates of climate change.โ€ He has also contributed regularly to National Geographic News, Grist, and OnEarth Magazine. He has published three booksโ€”on eco-friendly living in New York City, an Energy 101 primer, and, most recently, โ€œThe Electric Battery: Charging Forward to a Low Carbon Future.โ€ He graduated with a BA in Environmental Studies from Middlebury College, and earned a Masterโ€™s in Energy Regulation and Law at Vermont Law School. A bicycle enthusiast, Ben has ridden across the United States and through much ofย Europe.

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