From Senator Maria Cantwell’s website the text of her press release and the the letter she and five of her colleagues (Boxer, Kerry, Lautenberg, Feinstein and Tim Johnson) sent to Sen. Stevens of Alaska, and Sen. Domenici of New Mexico, yesterday, demanding that oil company executives be recalled to testify under oath:
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and other Senate Democrats demand that oil company executives return to Congress and testify under oath, in light of Wednesday morning’s The Washington Post story casting doubt on the truthfulness of testimony offered by oil company CEOs at last week’s joint hearing of the Senate Commerce and Energy Committees. Cantwell called on giant oil companies to return to congress and address growing concerns of gas price-gouging under oath. Cantwell also called on the full Senate to vote on her anti-price gouging legislation before they recess.
“The oil companies told us it is all about supply and demand,” said Cantwell, a member of both the Senate Commerce and Energy Committees. “Well we are demanding that they tell us about their supply under oath. The American people demand the truth and deserve answers. To this day, we have gotten neither. America’s Oil Executives must return to Congress and testify under oath. With Americans’ jobs, pensions, and businesses at stake, we owe the American people nothing less.”
In a letter to Chairman Ted Stevens of the Commerce Committee and Chairman Pete Domenici of the Energy Committee, Cantwell and others requested that hearings reconvene as soon as possible to take sworn testimony from oil CEOs about their roles in the Cheney energy task force and the recent run-up in American fuel prices. Cantwell also call on the Justice Department to investigate the alleged false statements.
“We asked Oil Executives simple questions and they gave us answers that may not be true,” said Cantwell. “In order to get to the bottom of high gas prices, we need honest answers that all Americans can believe.”
Cantwell is the chair of the Senate Democrats’ Energy Independence 2020 national campaign, working to break America’s overdependence on foreign oil, to protect working families from skyrocketing energy costs, and to stop unfair market manipulation by energy companies. We must stop price gouging, provide relief from high home heating costs, and invest in reliable sources of affordable fuel. By working toward energy independence, we can protect our environment, jumpstart our economy, and provide for a better future. Together, America can do better.
[The text of Cantwell’s letter follows below]
[Emphasis added by Steven D]
November 16, 2005
Honorable Ted Stevens
Chairman Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation
United States Senate Hart Building, Room 522
Washington, DC 20510-6125Honorable Pete Domenici
Chairman Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
United States Senate Dirksen Building, Room 364
Washington, DC 20510-6125Dear Chairmen Stevens and Domenici:
We were troubled to read allegations detailed in this morning’s Washington Post that cast doubt on the truthfulness of testimony offered by oil company CEOs at last week’s joint hearing of the Senate Commerce and Energy Committees. Prior to the hearing, many of us officially requested that the witnesses—and in particular, the oil company CEOs—be sworn in to testify under oath. That request was denied. But in light of today’s revelations, we respectfully request that you reconvene hearings as soon as possible to take these witnesses’ sworn testimony about their roles in the Cheney energy task force and the recent run-up in American fuel prices.
Recalling these witnesses is crucial for at least two reasons. First, the integrity of this institution demands that false statements before Senate Committees must not be tolerated. As such, the implications of these witnesses’ testimony regarding the Vice President’s energy task force must be more fully explored.
Second, when one element of a witness’ testimony is called into question, it raises additional concerns about other statements offered during the course of a hearing. Many of us asked questions of these witnesses designed to help us understand the factors contributing to record-setting and tremendously volatile fuel prices, which are harming consumers, businesses and the American economy as a whole. But just as Majority Leader Frist has stated, the oil company executives who testified “did not… adequately answer the question of whether the sky-high gas prices we saw earlier this fall were entirely justified, and whether their companies’ profit margins are appropriate given the hardships energy consumers are facing and will continue to face this winter.” Recalling these witnesses to testify under oath will help us answer many of these lingering questions, and bolster the American people’s confidence in the integrity of the Senate’s investigation into this matter.
We believe the American people deserve real answers about the causes of the recent run-up in fuel prices. Given the complexities of national and international fuel markets, getting these answers will require more than a single hearing—and further requires that we demand the truth from witnesses who come before the United States Senate.
Thank you for your attention to this request. Sincerely,
Maria Cantwell, United States Senator
Frank Lautenberg, United States Senator
Barbara Boxer, United States Senator
Diane Feinstein, United States Senator
Tim Johnson, United States Senator
John Kerry, United States Senator
In addition, Senator Lautenberg sent a letter to the Attorney General, demanding an investigation into the potential false statements made by these executives:
November 16, 2005
Honorable Alberto Gonzales
Attorney General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, DC 20530Dear Attorney General Gonzales:
As I’m sure you are aware, Vice President Cheney convened a secret energy task force in 2001 to formulate Bush Administration energy policy. Members of Congress sought details on the membership and records of this task force, as did the Government Accountability Office (GAO). After Vice President Cheney refused to provide details, GAO sued to enforce its right to access of task force records but lost that suit in federal court.
Little has been known about the participants in that task force, as the details have been kept secret from the American people. That is why I asked the CEO’s of major oil companies about their participation in the task force at a joint hearing between the Senate Commerce and Energy Committees on November 9th. The CEOs of the following companies testified at this hearing: Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP America, and Shell Oil Company.
I asked each of these CEOs the following question:
Did your company or any representatives in your companies participate in Vice President Cheney’s energy task force in 2001?
Each CEO answered my question in the form of a negative. However, information has recently come to light that casts doubt on the veracity of these statements.
I therefore request that the Justice Department investigate whether the answers provided to me in that hearing violated the “False Statements” statute, 18 U.S.C. §1001.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
FRANK R. LAUTENBERG
Here’s how some of the major media are covering this story:
Testimony by Oil Executives Is Challenged
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: November 17, 2005WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 – Senators from both parties demanded Wednesday that several oil executives explain statements they made to Congress last week about their ties to the energy task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney.
[Note: This is a very misleading lead. In fact, (as will appear in stories by other news outlets posted hereafter, Senate Demacrats are calling for recalling the executives to testify under oath. Senator Domenici (R-NM) and Senator Bigaman (D-NM) sent a joint letter only asking for “clarification” from the executives. Thus, the Times misleads its readers into believing this is a bi-partisan effort, when in fact I have found no evidence of any Republican in the Senate calling for new testimony under oath.]
“I join my Democratic colleagues in demanding that these oil executives be brought back to Congress, sworn in and forced to testify again,” said Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader.
[11 paragraphs later comes this:]
Mr. Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, said he wanted to recall all the executives and question them under oath. He also linked the issue of their role in setting energy policy with the recent surge in oil profits.
Senator Pete Domenici, Republican of New Mexico and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, stopped short of saying that the executives should be summoned back but made his displeasure clear.
Mr. Domenici and Senator Jeff Bingaman, the ranking Democrat on the Senate energy committee, demanded a “prompt explanation, in writing, of these inconsistencies” and would consider “further appropriate action” once the explanations had been given.
[Note: The Times story doesn’t mention either the Cantwell or Lautenberg letters.]
WASHINGTON — One week after five top oil executives testified before a joint Senate hearing on record oil profits, three Democratic senators challenged the truth of the executives’ testimonies and renewed a call for regulations preventing price gouging by oil companies.
On Wednesday, Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. and Maria Cantwell, D-Mich., called on Senate leaders to bring back the executives to account for what they say were outright lies.
“We ought to be able to ask questions and get truthful responses,” Lautenberg said.
Spokesmen for Shell and ExxonMobil reached Wednesday stood by their executives’ statements last week. A spokeswoman for BP America did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment
[AP leads their story with letter from Sens. Domenici and Bingaman to the Oil company executives seeking clarification of their testimony]
H. Josef Hebert, The Associated Press
The chief executives of five major oil companies were asked Wednesday to clarify their recent Senate testimony about the companies’ involvement in Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force four years ago.
Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., made the request in letters to the executives after a published report said officials from four of the companies visited the White House complex in early 2001 to discuss energy issues with task force staffers.
The White House has refused to disclose contacts with industry representatives concerning the task force deliberations.
When Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., asked last week during a hearing on oil industry profits whether any of the companies’ representatives had participated in the task force, four of the executives said they did not and the fifth said he did not know.
[Four paragraphs later here is the only mention of the Senate Democrats’ letter] . . . Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and five other Democrats asked Domenici to recall the executives and require them to testify under oath this time.
U.S. Senate Democrats have asked the Justice Department to investigate whether oil company executives lied to a Senate panel when they denied participating in Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force in 2001.
In a letter Wednesday to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat from New Jersey, asked for a criminal probe to determine whether company officials gave false statements at a Nov. 9 hearing on gasoline prices and company profits. At the hearing, Lautenberg asked executives from Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc if company representatives were part of Cheney’s task force.
“Each CEO answered my question in the negative,” Lautenberg said in the letter. “However, information has recently come to light that casts doubt on the veracity of some of those statements.”
. . . Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington said at a press conference that company officials also may have provided false information in response to her questions on whether oil companies may have withheld supplies to manipulate prices. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California said Shell “lied to my face,” about plans to close a California oil refinery.
The senators have asked Senate leaders to open the hearings and call oil company officials back to Washington.
“We need to continue this hearing,” Boxer said. “We need to have company executives take that oath.”
[There’s no mention of Cantwell’s letter to Stevens, but they do a nice write-up on Lautenberg’s letter to the Justice Department, and on the Dems’ presser]
(CBS) WASHINGTON The chief executives of five major oil companies were asked Wednesday to clarify their recent Senate testimony about the companies’ involvement in Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force four years ago.
[6 paragraphs later, comes the first mention of Cantwell and Senate Democrats]
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and five other Democrats asked Domenici to recall the executives and require them to testify under oath this time.
Well, there you have it. So far a little skimpy on the reporting of the Senate Democrats’ response to what appears to be outright lies to the Senate by Big Oil, with the exception of Fox and Bloomberg. As new stories come to my attention I’ll update this piece.
