Environment & Animal Welfare

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) asserted Wednesday that he has a “constitutional obligation” in his controversial subpoenas of state attorneys general for the climate change-related investigations.

Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, said at a hearing over the matter that as the House’s lead panel overseeing federal science programs, he is well within his rights and responsibilities.

“The committee has the power to issue these subpoenas and enforce their compliance,” Smith said at the hearing.

EXXON CLIMATE DRAMA REACHES CONGRESS: House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith will double down today at a hearing on his bid to subpoena state officials for records of their ongoing investigations into Exxon Mobil’s climate science activities. It's the latest phase in Smith’s quest to transform his once-sleepy committee into an energetic investigator of government activities.

The recovery has just begun in Louisiana as thousands attempt to pick up the pieces from the historic flooding.

It’s the latest, but certainly not the last example of extreme weather events that will increase in frequency and severity due to climate change.

When I watch the news and see homes and businesses wrecked, an angry thought comes to mind. The fossil fuel industry saw it all coming.

Last fall, ExxonMobil executives hurried along the hushed, art-filled halls of the company’s Irving, Texas, headquarters, a 178-acre suburban complex some employees facetiously call “the Death Star,” to a series of emergency strategy meetings. The world’s largest oil explorer by market value had been hit by a pair of multipart investigations by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times. Both reported that as early as the 1970s, the company understood more about climate change than it had let on and had deliberately misled the public about it.