Exxon Could Lose Lobbying Access To EU Parliament After Failing To Show Up For Hearings
Exxon Mobil could be the second company after Monsanto to lose lobbying access to members of European Parliament after it failed to turn up to a hearing Thursday into whether or not the oil giant knowingly spread false information about climate change. The call to ban the company was submitted by Green Member of European Parliament (MEP) Molly Scott Cato and should be decided in a vote in late April, The Guardian reported.
“This is the company that denied the science, despite knowing the damage their oil exploitation was causing; which funded campaigns to block action on climate and now refuses to face up to its environmental crimes by attending today's hearing,” Cato said in a statement released Thursday. “We cannot allow the lobbyists from such corporations free access to the corridors of the European parliament. We must remove their badges immediately.”
The only other company to be denied lobby access to MEPs is Monsanto, which was banned for similar reasons in 2017 after it failed to turn up to a hearing on whether it had improperly influenced studies on the safety of glyphosate, the active ingredient in its Roundup weedkiller.
ExxonMobil contended it could not attend the hearing because of ongoing climate litigation in the U.S. It was concerned that any comments made at the hearing “could prejudice those pending proceedings,” according to a letter obtained by AFP. Evidence presented at the hearing Thursday suggested that ExxonMobil had known since 1959 that global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels “was sufficient to melt the ice cap and submerge New York,” Harvard University researcher Geoffrey Supran told AFP.
EDIT
https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/03/23/exxonmobil-ban-eu-parliament-lobbying-disinformation-climate-hearing
