Four major oil company representatives declined to appear at a U.S. House panel on February 8, in which the House’s committees planned to oversee the companies’ climate change prevention protocols. 

In January of 2022, members of Exxon Mobil Corp, Shell Plc, BP Plc, and Chevron Corp received invitations to attend a hearing with the U.S. congressional committee. This inquest would ultimately allow these oil corporations to defend or criticize their endeavors to reduce global climate change. All four companies’ histories would have been, if any of the corporations had made the decision to testify, thoroughly examined. That intensive inspection would have provided the U.S. House’s congressional committee with a better understanding of the oil industry’s role in the climate crisis. 

Although all of the companies exuded reluctance to attest to the oil industry’s harmless impact, two of the four corporations exclaimed that there is a possibility of attendance at the panel, as long as the date is moved. Their initial hesitance, however, speaks volumes about the suspicious activities oil companies perpetually engage in. 

Both the emission of pollution and disruption of wildlife are merely two, of many, effects of oil drilling, and these upshots elicit environmental apprehension from individuals around the globe. International oil drilling corporations persistently produce an exuberant amount of pollution that dramatically increases the severity of global warming. According to reports made in 2021, the oil industry generated approximately $174,000,000,000 this year as U.S. gas prices continued to rise. The revenue that this industry induces has distorted the dire effects of oil drilling, and this desire to improve the economy renders federal agencies culpable, for they subsidize this industry by endowing oil companies with access to public lands.   

“Oil drilling kills our land and is harmful to the planet,” said sophomore Kara Langbaum when asked about whether or not she believes oil drilling is detrimental.

By not taking accountability for their deleterious actions, oil companies continue to evade retribution, and in doing so, they gravely pervert the course of the environment.