Dems Threaten to Subpoena FTI Consulting Over 'Blanket Refusal' to Provide Info on Fossil Fuel Work

Two Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives this week threatened to subpoena FTI Consulting if it continues refusing to comply with a request for information about the firm's work for fossil fuel interests.

"FTI may be the first communications agency to be subpoenaed in an investigation such as this one, but they will not be the last."

Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Katie Porter (D-Calif.), head of the panel's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, made the threat in a Wednesday letter to Steven H. Gunby, the firm's president and CEO.

Grijalva and Porter previously sent requests for materials to Gunby and the leaders of four other public relations firms--Blue Advertising, DDC Advocacy, Singer Associates, and Story Partners--plus the American Petroleum Institute, a fossil fuel industry trade group, on June 12.

"In the subsequent weeks, our staff has had multiple conversations with FTI's representation in a good-faith effort to accommodate any reasonable concerns FTI might have regarding this request," the new letter explains. "FTI has not wavered in its blanket refusal to provide even the most basic information about its clients or descriptions of the grounds for its refusal beyond the vaguest assertions of confidentiality and privileges."

"FTI has provided no indication that this obstruction of congressional oversight will come to an end voluntarily," the document adds. "Unless FTI Consulting produces all responsive documents by 5:00 pm on August 24, 2022, the committee will be forced to consider all of its options for obtaining this information, including, but not limited to, authorizing and issuing a subpoena."

In a statement to The Hill, an FTI spokesperson said that "our company takes the subcommittee's request very seriously. We continue to be in regular contact with subcommittee staff as we progress our efforts to be responsive to the chair's request in a manner consistent with our legal obligations to preserve our clients' confidentiality and privileges."

Meanwhile, Duncan Meisel, the executive director of Clean Creatives--a campaign that works to expose the link between climate misinformation and advertising and PR agencies--welcomed the Democrats' latest move.

"FTI Consulting is responsible for some of the most misleading fossil fuel campaigns in operation today," Meisel said. "FTI's refusal to cooperate with this congressional inquiry shows that they have something to hide, which will reveal the dangerous ways agencies like theirs have promoted fossil fuel greenwash and misinformation."

"The public deserves to know the ways in which agencies have polluted the debate about climate change," he added, "and FTI's resistance to participate in this discussion will do damage to their reputation, and the reputation of the communications industry they are a part of."

According to Meisel, "FTI may be the first communications agency to be subpoenaed in an investigation such as this one, but they will not be the last--unless the PR and ad industry cleans up its act, and stops working for the fossil fuel industry."