This story was updated at 5:02 p.m. EST.
Congressional Democrats have for years been going after major oil companies, casting them as villains of climate progress motivated by corporate greed. Now, Republicans are casting these companies as victims.
A new interim report released Friday by the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee asserts that Exxon Mobil has been targeted by a “climate cartel” — comprising multiple major asset managers like BlackRock and Vanguard, various “blue state” public pension funds, activists, and proxy advisers — to unlawfully “collude to pressure American businesses to commit to ‘net zero’ and scale down disfavored production” of fossil fuels.
If these businesses refuse, the report reads, “the climate cartel colludes to fire company board members and replace them with cartel-aligned members.”
