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Oil poisons our politics and wetlands, while critics get jail time

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Oil poisons our politics and wetlands, while critics get jail time

The industry’s powerful influence is a disaster on all fronts.

ExxonKnews
Oct 5, 2021
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Oil poisons our politics and wetlands, while critics get jail time

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Emily Sanders is the Center for Climate Integrity’s editorial lead. Catch up with her on Twitter here.


Faced with escalating calls for accountability — in Congress, board rooms, universities, and the courts — Big Oil is still wreaking havoc.

Oil and gas giants are still working to quash the country’s (last?) shot at passing urgently needed climate action before it’s too late, even as they tout their commitment to climate solutions. With the unprecedented house arrest and now sentencing of human rights attorney Steven Donziger, Chevron has sent a strong message to communities trying to make them pay for destroying land and lives. And speaking of which, a massive oil pipeline spill turned miles of California coastline into a toxic graveyard this week. 

We’re here with the (gruesome) details and a reminder of the stakes.

Big Oil is “fighting tooth and nail” to kill climate action… again.

Just weeks before a major Congressional hearing into the oil and gas industry's role in pushing climate disinformation to block climate action, the biggest players in oil and gas are, well … spreading climate disinformation to block climate action.

The American Petroleum Institute (API), which has been sued by cities and states for decades of lying to consumers and the public about climate damages now ravaging their communities, won’t stop until the climate policy in Biden’s infrastructure package is dead in the water.

As reporting from HuffPost this week explained, API and other industry giants are flat-out lying to the public about their “economic incentive” to regulate their own emissions in lieu of provisions like a price on methane, which was introduced by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and others as a potential piece of climate policy in the upcoming package.

And according to data analyzed by UK thinktank InfluenceMap, which tracks corporate spending on policy, API has spent nearly half a million dollars to run ads on Facebook deriding the bill, viewed at least 21 million times, since the Senate passed a budget resolution on August 11.

Twitter avatar for @InfluenceMap
InfluenceMap @InfluenceMap
The American Petroleum Institute is flooding Facebook with ads aimed at blocking key climate initiatives in the $3.5t budget reconciliation. The group has eclipsed its previous daily spend record, which was set when Joe Biden announced his climate plan during the 2020 election.
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10:48 AM ∙ Sep 30, 2021
72Likes59Retweets

Exxon spent $275,000 in the past week alone on Facebook ads targeting the bill for raising taxes on the industry.

Twitter avatar for @foe_us
Friends of the Earth (Action) @foe_us
Thanks to lobbyists from corporations like Exxon, our tax code is filled with loopholes to keep the dying fossil fuel industry afloat — including $121,000,000,000 in subsidies. So we visited @SenatorHick's Denver office to make sure he got our message: #EndFossilFuelSubsidies
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Image
6:17 PM ∙ Sep 29, 2021
31Likes12Retweets

The industry has practice thwarting U.S. climate policy before it could pass, most recently killing the Waxman-Markey Act, the would-be historic price on carbon that was nixed after the powerful oil and gas trade association went on an advertising spree against the bill during Obama’s first term. API is even using the same front group — Energy Citizens — as it did then to push ads decrying climate legislation as bad for jobs and the economy. 

“These industry groups are pulling out all the stops — from advertising to public messaging — to oppose the reconciliation bill,” Kendra Haven, InfluenceMap’s U.S. program manager, told E&E News. “This level of strategic activity, particularly through targeted advertising campaigns, exposes the value of their positive-sounding, top-line statements on climate.”

Seems like something Oversight House members should bring up with API President Mike Sommers, who has been asked to testify on October 28. 

Attorney who took on Chevron gets 6 months, will appeal

Steven Donziger, the attorney who won a $9.5 billion judgment against oil giant Chevron for poisoning the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest, was this week sentenced to six months in prison for criminal contempt of court (i.e., refusing to turn over his phone and laptop to the judge, which Donziger said would violate attorney-client privilege). 

Donziger has promised to appeal the ruling. His sentencing follows an unprecedented two-plus year house arrest and unrelenting attacks by Chevron, which still refuses to pay the judgment they owe to Indigenous Ecuadorians suffering the after-effects of their toxic pollution. Chevron has promised to fight the judgment “until hell freezes over, and then fight it on the ice.”

Twitter avatar for @RepMcGovern
Rep. Jim McGovern @RepMcGovern
This is not justice. It’s the executives at Chevron—who polluted campesino communities, put lives at risk in Ecuador, and then dodged responsibility—who should be behind bars.
theguardian.comLawyer Steven Donziger gets six-month sentence for contempt in Chevron battleJudge orders prison for indigenous rights campaigner despite UN experts’ opinion that his treatment broke international law
6:02 PM ∙ Oct 2, 2021
3,407Likes962Retweets

The day before Donziger’s sentencing, a United Nations’ human rights body stated that Donziger’s house arrest violates international law, and urged the U.S. to release him. “The charges against and detention of Mr. Donziger appears to be retaliation for his work as a legal representative of indigenous communities,” reads their report, “as he refused to disclose confidential correspondence with his clients in a very high profile case against a multi-national business enterprise.”

Twitter avatar for @emdashsanders
Emily Sanders @emdashsanders
The same week the UN says @SDonziger's house arrest violated international law, the human rights lawyer is sentenced to prison. @Chevron and other oil giants doing everything in their power to intimidate & dissuade anyone who might hold them accountable.
gizmodo.comUN Finds Steven Donziger’s House Arrest Violates International Law, Says It’s ‘Appalled’The world’s leading body on human rights ruled that the home detention of the attorney, who won a landmark case against Chevron, violates international law.
5:13 PM ∙ Oct 1, 2021
34Likes22Retweets

Perhaps worth wondering why an attorney who takes on Chevron gets prison time, while the attorney who defends Chevron is getting awards for defending free speech.

Twitter avatar for @GeoffDembicki
Geoff Dembicki @GeoffDembicki
A lead attorney for Chevron is being given a major media award this evening and climate people are incredulous. The cherry on top is Chevron itself donated $50k to the award organization. My latest for @VICENews
vice.comLawyer Who Defends Big Oil’s ‘Free Speech’ Wins Major Journalism AwardTed Boutrous, one of the most famous First Amendment lawyers in the U.S., is also the lead attorney for Chevron in lawsuits that accuse the oil giant of spreading misinformation about climate change.
7:39 PM ∙ Sep 28, 2021
5Likes2Retweets

California oil spill causing massive devastation

Over the weekend, a failed offshore oil operation spilled more than 126,000 gallons of heavy crude from a pipeline off the coast of Orange, California, leaving a 13 square-mile slick and a harrowing scene as dead wildlife washed up from the Pacific. 

Mayor Kim Carr of Huntington Beach, where the longer-term effects of the spill’s ecological damage are so far unknown, said at a news conference that it was “one of the most devastating situations our community has dealt with in decades.” Across from Huntington Beach, the oil slick seeped into the Talbert Marsh, a 25 acre wetland and ecological reserve home to 80 species of birds.

Amplify Energy, the corporation responsible for the offshore oil operation, had a hefty reputation for negligence before the spill.

Twitter avatar for @StaceyGeis
Stacey Geis @StaceyGeis
CA's dirty little secret: the oil & gas industry has been a runaway train for decades, giving us oil spills on our coast, historic gas leaks, & terrible air pollution in vulnerable communities. It's time to leave oil & gas in the past where it belongs.
latimes.comBefore O.C. oil spill, platform owner faced bankruptcy, history of regulatory problemsAmplify Energy Corp., the owner of the offshore oil operation, had recently emerged from bankruptcy, while a subsidiary amassed numerous federal noncompliance incidents.
10:59 PM ∙ Oct 4, 2021
157Likes81Retweets

Stories like these will continue to litter our news feeds, their lasting impact lost in a sea of updates on climate and environmental disaster, until executives of these companies are held accountable. We hope to see the ghouls in Congress on the 28th —I know all of us have a few questions we’d like answered.


ICYMI News Roundup

  • The ABCs of Big Oil: The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Century-Long Quest to Invade Elementary Schools

  • As heat waves intensify, tens of thousands of US classrooms will be too hot for students to learn in

  • Could Fossil Fuel Companies Ever Be Tried for Crimes Against Humanity?

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Oil poisons our politics and wetlands, while critics get jail time

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