Congress has oil executives cornered. But will they lie under oath? | Mark Hertsgaard

When the CEOs of four top oil firms testify before Congress Thursday, they'll have two options: apologize for their decades of lies, or risk perjury

Today is a day of history-making climate drama in Washington. At the Capitol Hill end of Pennsylvania Avenue, an unprecedented event: the CEOs of four of the world's biggest private oil companies are summoned to testify under oath to Congress about their companies' decades of lying about the lethal dangers their products pose.

There's no mystery about who the villains are in this drama, only about how big oil will play this pivotal moment in the climate emergency: will these executives finally admit their companies' lies and take responsibility for the havoc they've caused? Or will they keep lying, if only by proclaiming that they are now climate champions working to solve the crisis engulfing humanity?