In a scene most evocative of the infamous Big Tobacco hearing in 1994 when tobacco executives lined up and testified under oath that nicotine was not addictive, the oil executives have responded disappointingly to a series of questions about climate change by Rep. Inslee.
Inslee asked the executives to go down the line and respond, with a yes or no answer, to the question of whether they agreed that oil drilling activities had a deleterious effect on the environment by adding acidity to the oceans and increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
No one said yes. There were "no"s almost down the line, with Tillerson saying that the issue was up for "scientific debate."
"There is no scientific debate," replied Inslee.