How a Powerful US Lobby Group Helps Big Oil to Block Climate Action

July 19, 2021

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by Chris McGreal (The Guardian) The American Petroleum Institute receives millions from oil companies – and works behinds the scenes to stall or weaken legislation -- ... Shell issued a separate report revealing that its single largest donation to political lobby groups last year was made to the American Petroleum Institute, one of the US’s most powerful trade organizations, which drives the oil industry’s relationship with Congress.

Contrary to Shell’s public statements in support of electric vehicles, API’s chief executive, Mike Sommers, has pledged to resist a raft of Joe Biden’s environmental measures, including proposals to fund new charging points in the US. He claims a “rushed transition” to electric vehicles is part of “government action to limit Americans’ transportation choice”.

Shell donated more than $10m to API last year alone.

And it’s not just Shell. Most other oil conglomerates are also major funders, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP, although they have not made their contributions public.

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While companies run publicity campaigns claiming to take the climate emergency seriously, the trade group works behind the scenes in Congress to stall or weaken environmental legislation.

Earlier this year, an Exxon lobbyist in Washington was secretly recorded by Greenpeace describing API as the industry’s “whipping boy” to direct public and political criticism away from individual companies.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and strident critic of big oil’s public relations tactics, accused API of “lying on a massive industrial scale” about the climate crisis in order to stall legislation to combat global heating.

“The major oil companies and API move very much together,” he said.

Whitehouse said the oil and gas industry now recognizes it is no longer “socially acceptable” to outright deny climate change, and that companies are under pressure to claim they support new energy solutions that are less harmful to the environment. But that does not mean their claims should be taken at face value.

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The French oil company Total quit the group earlier this year over its climate policies.

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API is also fighting a growing number of lawsuits, led by the state of Minnesota, alleging that the trade group was at the heart of a decades-long “disinformation campaign” on behalf of big oil to deny the threat from fossil fuels.

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API also hired professional lobbyists, including Philip Cooney, who went on to serve under George W Bush as chief of staff of the Council on Environmental Quality until he was forced to resign in 2005 after tampering with government climate assessments to downplay scientific evidence of global heating and to emphasise doubts. Shortly afterward, Cooney was hired by Exxon.

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In 1998, after countries signed the Kyoto Protocol to help curb carbon emissions, API drew up a multimillion-dollar disinformation campaign to ensure that “climate change becomes a non-issue”. The plan said “victory will be achieved” when “recognition of uncertainties become part of the ‘conventional wisdom’”.

Much of this is the basis of several lawsuits against API.

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The lawsuits allege that API funded scientists known to deny or underplay climate changes, and gave millions of dollars to ostensibly independent organisations, such as the Cato Institute and the George C Marshall Institute, which denied or downplayed the growing environmental crisis.

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“Most of the funding for the Republican party, and probably a very considerable amount of the big dark money funding behind the Republican party, comes out of the fossil fuel industry,” said Whitehouse. Last year, API indirectly gave $5m to the conservative Senate Leadership Fund to back Republican election candidates (many of whom question climate science), and to the campaigns of members of the energy committees in both houses of Congress.

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In March it launched a Climate Action Framework, which for the first time endorsed policies such as carbon pricing. It also stated its support for the Paris climate agreement.

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And between API’s lost support from Total, and the Shell executives who resigned in December over what they regarded as the company’s foot-dragging on greener fuels, there are signs of shifting attitudes within the industry itself. READ MORE

PROBING WHAT EXXON KNEW: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Washington’s Oil Lobby Pivoted on Climate Change—and Made No One Happy: The American Petroleum Institute’s green makeover has been met with skepticism from friends and foes alike (Wall Street Journal)

The Biden White House Has an Exxon Problem: The White House has remained conspicuously silent on a blockbuster report from Unearthed that suggested the oil company helped excise climate policy from the infrastructure package. (The New Republic)

Inside Exxon’s playbook: How America’s biggest oil company continues to oppose action on climate change (Greenpeace)

Big Oil Is Spending Big On Dividends And Debt, Not Clean Energy (Oilprice.com)

Oil Giants Turn to Startups for Low-Carbon Energy Ideas: BP, Shell bolster their venture capital arms as they seek to reduce dependence on fossil fuels (Wall Street Journal)

COME AS YOU ARE: (Politico's Morning Energy)

THE OVERSIGHT EXXON FIGHT: (Politico's Morning Energy)

House to Investigate Oil Industry’s Efforts to Undermine Climate Science (Our Daily Planet)

TIME TO SAY GOODBYE: Keith McCoy (Politico's Morning Energy)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: PROBING WHAT EXXON KNEW: Two senior Democrats on the House Oversight Committee — Carolyn Maloney and Ro Khanna — are inviting senior Exxon lobbyist Keith McCoy to voluntarily participate in a transcribed interview on Aug. 9 on the company's activities on climate change and forever chemicals. The move comes weeks after McCoy appeared on a surreptitiously-filmed video declaring Exxon funded “shadow groups” to undermine climate policy initiatives, even while publicly backing policies like carbon pricing. The company distanced itself from McCoy’s comments.

“Your statements raise serious concerns about your role in ongoing efforts by ExxonMobil and the fossil fuel industry to spread climate disinformation, including through the use of ‘shadow groups,’ in order to block action to address climate change,” Maloney and Khanna wrote in a letter obtained by ME.

Reality check: ME doubts very seriously McCoy will come in voluntarily to answer questions, but a rejection from him could set the stage for more aggressive steps. Khanna, who chairs the Environment Subcommittee, has previously indicated he’s prepared to issue subpoenas to compel testimony from oil companies. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: COME AS YOU ARE: The House Oversight Committee is in talks with Exxon lobbyist Keith McCoy and hopes to have him speak for the record "soon," a committee aide told ME. “McCoy has responded and we are in discussions with his counsel to arrange an interview soon,” the aide said. The committee seeks to talk to McCoy about his statements in a video released last month that described the oil giant’s commitment to a carbon price as being more about public relations than an actual policy goal and its use of contributions to dark money groups that worked to muddy the energy policy waters.

Republicans are seeking the full video, which was taken as part of a sting on McCoy and released by Greenpeace UK and resulted in the oil giant getting booted from a moderate climate group it helped found. Exxon did not immediately respond to questions on McCoy appearing before the committee. READ MORE

Excerpt from Poltico's Morning Energy: THE OVERSIGHT EXXON FIGHT: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are hoping to get an on-the-record interview with Exxon lobbyist Keith McCoy, who made a major splash when he was caught on tape in a Greenpeace UK sting operation making damning assessments about the company’s commitments to climate action. But Republicans on the committee are fretting that they aren’t getting the full story, demanding that Greenpeace UK reveal the entirety of its interview with McCoy.

Republicans asked Democrats to join in their request to the group, but the Democratic members declined, a GOP staffer told ME. Ranking member James Comer and Environment Subcommittee Ranking member Ralph Norman are now pushing again for their Democratic counterparts to join them in their push for the entirety of the McCoy sting video. “Your rejection of this request for information raises questions about the motivation and legitimacy of your inquiries into these matters; what possible reason could there be for Committee Democrats to actively avoid seeking a complete account of a matter they are, with great fanfare, investigating?” the lawmakers write in a letter first shared with ME.

Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney and Environmental Subcommittee Chair Ro Khanna said in a statement to ME that they are already probing the fossil fuel industry and that “some of our colleagues are missing the point and trying to divert attention from these important issues. We invite our colleagues to see the bigger picture and join us in holding polluters accountable.” Both McCoy and Exxon CEO Darren Woods publicly acknowledged the tape and apologized after it went live. The House Oversight Committee is in talks with McCoy to speak on the record with the committee, ME reported Wednesday. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: TIME TO SAY GOODBYE: Keith McCoy, the Exxon lobbyist who was caught in a sting operation disparaging carbon taxes despite the company’s public support for the policy, is no longer with the oil giant, E&E News’ Corbin Hiar reports. It’s still unclear if Exxon is providing McCoy legal help as the company goes under the microscope on its climate messaging in the House Oversight Committee, which asked McCoy to testify as part of the probe. Republicans on the committee wrote to Chair Carolyn Maloney on Tuesday objecting to the probe into internal company communications as infringing on the entities' First Amendment rights. READ MORE