Former Exxon Scientists Tell Congress of Oil Giant's Climate Research Before Exxon Turned to Denial

Exxon’s research warned of the risks of climate change from human-cause greenhouse gas emissions 40 years ago.  Then came the ‘sea change’ at the energy company.

Telling their story before a Congressional committee for the first time, two former ExxonMobil scientists on Wednesday detailed how the oil giant turned its back on the research they did for the company 40 years ago on the looming threat of climate change.

They gave their testimony in Washington, D.C., just as Exxon went on trial in New York on allegations that it misled investors about climate change risks, underscoring how political and legal risks have dovetailed for a corporate giant that for years tried to sow doubt about the risks of carbon emissions.

Geochemist Ed Garvey described how Exxon shut down the carbon dioxide research program he worked on for the company from 1978 to 1983.

After the collapse of world oil prices in 1982, Garvey said, "they began to sell off things like lithium battery research and other divisions of Exxon research as they retrenched and focused solely on oil."  One of the programs that was jettisoned was his project to monitor carbon dioxide concentrations in the air and ocean surface from a dedicated station aboard one of the company's supertankers.

"There was really a sea change ... where they had gone from this very broad-based, very future-looking energy company to becoming an oil company," Garvey told the hearing, held by the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

After deepening the company's understanding of an environmental problem it suspected could harm its business, Exxon put its muscle behind efforts to manufacture doubt about the reality of global warming.

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