Lies, damn lies, and Big Oil
"You know that big, bullshit businessman smile?" (George Carlin)
In 2015, Climate Inside News broke a blockbuster scoop: Exxon had not only been aware of the consequences of burning fossil fuels since the 1970s through its own research, but, according to new findings, had also developed its own climate models and analyses so precise that they could predict trends in global warming that remain valid to this day (around 0.2°C per decade).
In the subsequent court hearing of a lawsuit brought by the City of New York, Exxon was (unfortunately) acquitted of the accusation of defrauding its investors. Whether Exxon deceived humanity itself has not (yet) been litigated.
Recently, Exxon CEO Darren Woods embarrassed himself and his corporation when he claimed that the public — that's us — is to blame for the slow progress of the green energy transition because we are not willing to pay for it. Mind you, for an energy transition that would have been significantly cheaper in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, when we had enough time to transition the economic system into a sustainable one.
I recount this brief episode of the climate-related business conduct of one of the world's largest oil corporations as a small intro, because as always in climate-related economic-political matters, it's much worse.
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Dario Kenner from University of Essex examined public statements from the American Petroleum Institute and FuelsEurope, two of the largest lobbying organizations in the oil industry in the USA and Europe, and found that they have been systematically opposing green, low-carbon technologies since the 1960s. Kenner found dozens of cases where lobbyists exerted pressure and influence on politics to prevent subsidies for things like electric cars, solar panels, or heat pumps.
All of this was happening 60 years ago under the banner of a supposed "technology-neutral approach" by the dominant energy companies, using the same false arguments of alleged distortion of competition through state subsidies for renewable energies as today, all while - and here it gets particularly egregious - benefiting itself from subsidies and tax breaks. According to the International Monetary Fund, subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, including societal costs, amounted to a whopping $760 billion in the USA and $310 billion in the EU for the year 2022 alone.
And to keep the sweet tax money rushing in — money that, mind you, comes from the same people Exxons CEO dares to accuse of slowing down climate action —, the oil industry switched tactics, going from hiding their evidence and climate change denial, to greenwashing and outright “deception, disinformation and double speak”, as a new report from the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee (the largest investigative committee in the House of Representatives) put it.
The report accuses big oil of nothing less than a "misinformation campaign". Specifically, the filed documents reveal that (emphasis in cursive mine):
Publicly, the oil industry promoted natural gas as a climate-friendly, green energy source, while internally the companies were well aware of the scientific evidence indicating that natural gas is as climate-damaging as coal, and that natural gas is just as incompatible with politically set emission reduction goals.
Internally, they referred to the targets of the Paris Agreement as "unattainable goals and incompatible with business plans."
The oil industry lobbied against climate laws while publicly pledging their support.
Publicly, they advocated for Carbon Capture, while internally discussing that Carbon Capture at the necessary scale is not profitable enough, measured against a "free-to-pollute business model."
They deliberately used trade associations, think tanks, and NGOs to spread misleading narratives and employ tactics they themselves did not want to be associated with. (Half a year ago, reporting showed how the Atlas Network, a network of think tanks funded by the Koch Brothers, apparently influenced german FDP member Frank Schäffler, who repeatedly referred to climate activists of the Last Generation as "terrorists" and a "criminal organization," which surely was not insignificant for the decision to conduct nationwide raids on kids. The police spoke at the time of "investigations on suspicion of forming a criminal organization." I can understand why the oil companies do not want to be associated with such potentially dangerous deceptions of the police.)
The oil industry forms partnerships with science and research to specifically finance studies that align with their business plans, while simultaneously tracking and monitoring critical voices and activists. For example, Shell discussed in internal emails "embedding" staff-scientists at the University of Berkeley, and representatives of British Petroleum spoke about marginalizing critical scientists.
All six companies and organizations under investigation obstructed and delayed the House committee's investigation, did not cooperate, and did not provide more than 4,000 requested documents despite legal requirements.
At the global UN climate conference in 2021, 503 lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry participated. The next year, it was 636. A year later, the number of lobbyists applying the strategy of "deception, disinformation, and double-talk" outlined in the report to the democratically elected representatives of the global public at the most important meeting for coordinating and negotiating "Climate Action" surged to a staggering 2,456. The number of oil industry lobbyists exceeded the number of all other country delegations, except for Brazil and the host country, the United Arab Emirates.
The report from the investigative committee is another damning proof that representatives of the oil industry have no place at the negotiation table at the COPs, where a lot of people in suits decide over the environmental future of the planet and the survival of millions of people in the not-so-distant future. And while climate change is starting to affect everything and the deceiving behavior of the energy sector is coming to light, this is what happens: from the business side: lies; from politics: too little; otherwise: police violence against climate activists. The word for this more-than-half-a-century-long deception of the public by politics and the oil industry is: hypocrisy.
During the hearing of the experts and authors of the report, Bernie Sanders remarked: "I think it's time to call on the people who caused this problem and knowingly spread lies about it to pay the bill."
He's right: Make them pay.