Reuters: Oil company officials accused of lying to Congress: “At a Senate hearing last week on record oil profits, Democrat Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey asked five executives: "Did your company or any representatives in your companies participate in Vice President Cheney's energy force in 2001?" Each executive answered the question in the negative. However, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that a White House document showed some firms did in fact meet with the task force. It said the document showed officials from Exxon Mobil Corp. Conoco, Shell Oil Co., whose executives testified at last week's Senate hearing, met with Cheney aides. Posted Thursday 17 November 2005

Published Wednesday 16 November 2005, 5:12pm EST

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Democrats asked the U.S. attorney general on Wednesday to investigate whether top executives from big oil companies lied to Congress when they said their firms did not take part in Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.

Democrats and environmental groups have fought unsuccessfully to find out which energy industry executives met privately with Cheney's group in 2001 as it prepared a broad plan friendly to oil industry interests.

Environmental groups said they were mostly excluded from the discussions.

At a Senate hearing last week on record oil profits, Democrat Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey asked five executives: "Did your company or any representatives in your companies participate in Vice President Cheney's energy force in 2001?"

Each executive answered the question in the negative.

However, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that a White House document showed some firms did in fact meet with the task force. It said the document showed officials from Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Conoco (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Shell Oil Co., whose executives testified at last week's Senate hearing, met with Cheney aides.

A Chevron official also testified at the Senate hearing, but the company was not named in the White House document.

However, the Government Accountability Office has found that Chevron was one of several companies that gave recommendations to the task force, the Post reported.

In a letter to the attorney general, Lautenberg demanded an investigation, saying the new information "casts doubt on the veracity of some of these

(executives') statements."

Providing false testimony to Congress is punishable by up to five years in prison, Lautenberg said.

SETTING RECORD STRAIGHT

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said the executives should return to Washington and set the record straight.

They should "be brought back to the Congress, sworn in, and forced to testify again about their involvement with Vice President Cheney's secretive energy task force and all of the issues covered in the hearing," Reid said.

The Cheney task force eventually issued a report calling for opening more federal lands to drilling and other policies to help oil, natural gas, nuclear and coal companies expand production. Many of the recommendations were inserted into a Republican-authored energy bill that became law in September.

Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska, who chaired last week's hearing, refused Democrats' demands that the executives be sworn in under oath before they testified.

"I did not swear in witnesses that appeared before our committee because they are required to tell the truth," Stevens said on Wednesday. "They are aware that making false statements and testimony is in violation of federal law whether or not an oath is administered."

Lautenberg wants the Justice Department to find out if the executives violated that law.

In a statement, Exxon said it makes its views on energy policy widely known to various government officials every year, including in 2001 when the task force was meeting.

"ExxonMobil has repeatedly stated and ExxonMobil's CEO Lee Raymond correctly confirmed in the recent Senate hearings that ExxonMobil has not been a participant on the task force and did not meet with the task force to discuss the provisions of the energy policy," the company said.

The Washington Post said that officials from four major oil companies met in the White House complex with Cheney aides who were formulating the Bush administration's energy policy.

The White House has refused to disclose information about the task force, saying the meetings were entitled to confidentiality.

The Sierra Club and the watchdog group Judicial Watch sued unsuccessfully to obtain names of task force members and to learn about their contacts with industry executives.

According to the Post, a person familiar with the task force work said Cheney met with John Browne, BP's chief executive, which is not noted in the document.

(Additional reporting by Ben Berkowitz in New York)

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