Democratic Senator Calls for Inquiry Into Whether Oil Execs Lied to Congress

Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) called on both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) Thursday to join him in pressing the Attorney General for an investigation into whether top oil executives made false statements during a recent Senate hearing when they said they did not meet with Vice President Dick Cheney about energy policy. His call was subsequently joined by Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

During a joint hearing of the Commerce and Energy Committees on Nov. 9, senators heard testimony from the CEOs of the nation’s largest oil companies. When Lautenberg asked these witnesses whether their companies had participated in Vice President Cheney’s energy taskforce in 2001, they denied -- answers that were later contradicted by a report in the Washington Post. Cheney has refused to disclose who he met with at those meetings, citing executive privilege.

“If witnesses believe that the laws requiring truthful testimony before the Senate will not be enforced, our hearings will lose their usefulness and the Senate’s oversight abilities will cease,” Lautenberg wrote in his letter to Senators Frist (R-TN) and Reid (D-NV).

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