Several executives from the nation's top five oil companies will soon receive subpoenas mandating their presence at a Dec. 1 hearing in Milwaukee, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Monday.
The subpoenas request the CEOs of ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP America and the president of Shell Oil testify about profits incurred in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Companies will provide information and records prior to the hearing.
The announcement of many companies' third-quarter earnings has further fueled Doyle's ongoing quest for an investigation into oil price gouging.
The Dec. 1 hearing date is symbolic, Doyle said in a statement, as it denotes the time when Wisconsinites begin to feel the "first real bite of winter heating bills." The focal point of the hearing will concern home heating costs and high gas prices, he added.
"I want these CEOs to see and hear firsthand what we are dealing with in Wisconsin, and how hard it is on our families when we have to support their outrageously inflated profits," Doyle said in a release.
However, Mark Boudreaux, media relations manager for ExxonMobil Corporation, said the information Doyle is asking for is the same information the executives submitted in the U.S. Senate Committee hearing held last week on the matter.
"We are continuing to cooperate with additional information requests from the Senate committees involved in the recent hearings," Boudreaux said in an e-mail.
ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Lee Raymond has not yet received a subpoena, Boudreaux said, adding ExxonMobil is also complying with an inquiry by the Federal Trade Commission.
"Since we have not yet received a subpoena, it would be premature for us to comment on participation," Boudreaux stated in an e-mail.
One motive behind subpoenaing the senior oil officials is to obtain answers about skyrocketing oil prices for the state's residents, Ann Lupardus, a Doyle spokesperson, said. Doyle hopes they will be taken seriously, she added.
"These are valid subpoenas and they are expected to appear — if they don't then there is a legal process in place to compel them to," Lupardus said. "But we are expecting them to show up."
Additionally, Kelly Kennedy, a spokesperson for Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, said his office has also been working to hold oil companies accountable for the alleged price gouging, adding that Lautenschlager supports Doyle's efforts.
"If the governor's actions spur the Legislature on to pass the price gouging statute as we requested them to, that would be wonderful," Kennedy said.
