Sen. Sanders Calls Oil Executives Before Senate Budget Panel

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has called 3 oil and gas executives to testify before the Senate Budget Committee next Thursday, April 15.

The senator has requested Chevron CEO and Chairman Michael Wirth, ExxonMobil Chair and CEO Darren W. Woods, and BP America Chairman and President David C. Lawler to attend the hearing, "The Cost of Inaction on Climate Change," according to CBS News.

Lawler denying the request, Sanders said, "tells me that these guys don't want to answer hard questions."

Sanders said oil and gas companies withholding or distorting information related to climate change stating is "one of the scandals of our lifetime."

"These companies are producing a significant percentage of the carbon that we use, which is destroying our planet, and we want to know what they are doing to transform their companies away from fossil fuel," Sanders said.

Sanders claimed we only had a few more years to reverse the changes of climate change.

"What the leading experts in the world are telling us is we have 5 or 6 years to move away from fossil fuel, or else there would be irreparable damage in our country and on our planet," Sanders said. "So we are up against an enormous crisis and we've got to move a lot more aggressively than we are today."

On President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan, Sanders called it "thoughtful" in creating green new jobs, but he admitted he would dissect it more carefully.

"The way our system of government works is the president makes that proposal and now Congress has got to take a hard look at it and see where we go with it," Sanders said.

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