At the end of last year, we warned you about a dangerous plan for Exxon to buy Permian oil giant Pioneer Natural Resources for $60 billion.
Tens of thousands of us signed petitions and called on the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize the deal – and it worked! An FTC investigation this year found that U.S. Big Oil companies colluded to raise gas prices. Our friends at More Perfect Union even made a damning 10-minute documentary on how Big Oil corporations have been illegally conspiring to raise the price of oil, killing our climate and costing Americans thousands of dollars a year.
But the FTC isn’t a law enforcement agency, they can’t hold Big Oil accountable for war profiteering and price fixing beyond putting some minor conditions on the merger. That’s why we also need to tell the Department of Justice to prosecute Big Oil!
Here’s the scoop if you prefer to read than watch videos: The Federal Trade Commission investigation centered on Pioneer Natural Resources, the largest oil company in the Permian Basin, which wanted to merge with ExxonMobil. The FTC discovered evidence that Pioneer was illegally colluding with OPEC, the oil cartel that includes Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, to keep prices high.
That collusion not only caused direct price increases at the gas pump, but drove higher prices and inflation overall, because everything from groceries to food delivery relies on a consistent, affordable price of oil.
The investigation turned up texts between US fossil fuel companies and oil ministers about how they should work together to keep prices high, delay the transition to renewable energy, and profiteer off the war in Ukraine.
The Federal Trade Commission has done what they can: Barring Pioneer staff from working for Exxon, and Exxon was banned from appointing top Pioneer executives for five years. And they already referred the case to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.
A FTC investigation found that US oil companies colluded with foreign governments to fix prices and delay climate action. Now, it’s up to the Justice Dept to prosecute Big Oil for price fixing, war profiteering, and climate crimes.