By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters), During a yearlong inquiry into climate deception, the head of a U.S. House committee subpoenaed 4 major oil companies as well as 2 lobbying groups to provide documents on their global warming activities.

Carolyn Maloney is a Democrat and chairwoman of House Committee on Oversight and Reform. She issued subpoenas. Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE :). Chevron Corp (NYSE -), BP (NYSE –) America and Shell, (LON –) Oil. Industry body American Petroleum Institute and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

On Sept. 16, the committee asked companies and organisations for documentation on topics such as their contribution to climate change and their marketing and lobbying efforts. It also requested any financial support from third parties that spread misinformation about climate.

“To date, none of the entities has substantially complied with the Committee’s requests” Maloney said on Tuesday in a memo https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2021-11-2%20Fossil%20Fuel%20Subpoena%20Memo%20%28Final%29.pdf to fellow members of the committee about the subpoenas https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/Final%20Fossil%20Fuel%20Subpoenas.pdf.

Last week, Maloney announced at the conclusion of the hearing on Big Oil and Climate Disinformation that she would request the organizations and companies to produce documents. She claimed that a lot of the information the committee received was publicly available.

Maloney, along with other Democrats in the committee, claim that oil companies have made huge profits over the years while misleading the public about climate change. They also prevented any action to reduce it. They deny these assertions.

The panel has received some documents from former Exxon lobbyist, Keith McCoy, who was secretly recorded by environmental group Greenpeace, https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/big-oil-hearing-kick-off-us-probe-into-climate-disinformation-lawmaker-2021-10-27 saying the company’s support of a carbon tax was a ruse, since the company believed the idea would never become law.

Democrats have modeled the Big Tobacco probe, which was conducted over several months in 1990s and finally revealed evidence that cigarettes can be addictive and even harmful.

Exxon spokesperson Casey Norton claimed that Exxon has provided more than 130,000 pages, including internal emails as a response to the subpoena.

Curtis Smith, spokesperson for Shell, stated that Shell would continue to work with the committee.

J.P. Fielder from BP America stated that BP America was reviewing the subpoenas and will work closely with the committee. BP has supplied more than 17,000 pages including internal material.

Matt Letourneau was the spokesperson of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He stated that the “we will reconsider” subpoenas.

Bethany Aronhalt Williams spoke on behalf of API and said that they will be working with the committee.

Chevron didn’t immediately reply to our request for comment.