What the Democratic platform doesn’t say about Big Oil

There’s a noticeable omission in the Democrats’ plan for “Making Polluters Pay.”

Illustration by Tess Abbot

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At its national convention in Chicago, the Democratic Party this week approved its official 2024 platform, a ninety-one-page document that includes pledges to combat the climate crisis, reduce pollution, and advance clean energy. But it fails to mention any commitment to tackle an obstacle that a growing number of Democrats at the federal, state, and local levels have in recent years sought to address head on: the fossil fuel industry’s ongoing campaigns to deceive the American people about their products’ harm and obstruct meaningful climate action.

In a section on “Making Polluters Pay,” the platform says Democrats will “keep standing up to Big Oil, as our clean energy boom breaks the industry’s monopoly hold on energy markets.” It notes that the party has increased royalties and bond prices for oil and gas companies that drill on public lands, and pledges to eliminate tens of billions in oil and gas subsidies and prevent “profiteering,” “collusion,” and “price-gouging” by fossil fuel executives. 

But the text makes no mention of holding Big Oil accountable for continuing to misinform the public about its operations and stall the clean energy transition — despite prominent elected Democrats across the country filing lawsuits and launching investigations into what Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressman Jamie Raskin this year described as “the fossil fuel industry’s decades-long history of engaging in deceptive practices.”   

Many people see countering Big Oil’s deception an important task for the potential administration of Kamala Harris, who has previously said she would “make sure there are severe and serious penalties for their behaviors.” It would also be an opportunity for the party to draw an obvious comparison against Donald Trump, who has promised the fossil fuel industry its pick of legislative gifts in exchange for campaign donations.

Roishetta Ozane, a Louisiana resident and environmental justice organizer who signed a recent letter to the Department of Justice with more than 1,000 other climate disaster survivors that called for a federal investigation into Big Oil’s “climate crimes,” said the party platform’s omission was “concerning.” Ozane, who has survived hurricanes, tornadoes, and petrochemical pollution in her community, is attending the DNC this week.

“As a survivor of climate disasters, I see firsthand the impact of corporate deception on our communities. Holding polluters accountable is not just a matter of policy — it’s a matter of justice for those of us who have been affected,” said Ozane, founder of Vessel Project, an environmental justice and mutual aid group. “This should absolutely be a priority for Democrats or any party if they truly want to address the climate crisis and support those of us who are suffering its consequences.” 

A glaring omission

Nine Democratic state attorneys general and dozens of local Democratic municipal leaders have already brought lawsuits against oil and gas majors for consumer fraud and climate damages, many seeking to make polluters help communities pay for the costs of adapting to and recovering from climate disasters that the companies knew their products could cause. (In May, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, another Democrat, announced her intent to file suit against fossil fuel companies.) 

When the Biden administration lagged on reversing the Trump-era DOJ’s support of oil companies in those cases, state attorneys general pushed the department to act on Biden’s promise to “strategically support” communities against Big Oil — which it did by filing a brief to the Supreme Court last year. 

In Congress, after a years-long investigation of oil companies and their trade groups, Raskin and Whitehouse formally referred their probe to the Department of Justice, suggesting in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland that “there is adequate evidence that fossil fuel industry companies and trade associations may have violated one or more federal statutes and that, accordingly, further investigation is warranted.” 

The Justice Department has not yet taken public action on that request, Raskin told ExxonKnews. But many leading figures in the Democratic Party who have championed holding Big Oil accountable are at the DNC this week. Raskin spoke on stage Monday night, and Whitehouse has been interviewed from the convention floor. Attorneys general who have sued oil majors, like Rob Bonta of California and Keith Ellison of Minnesota, are there with their state delegations. California Governor Gavin Newsom — who has been outspoken in his support for California’s lawsuit and said Big Oil has been “playing us for fools” — delivered his state’s delegates to Harris on Tuesday, sealing her nomination for president. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who sued BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, and the American Petroleum Institute in February for coordinating “tobacco-industry-style campaigns to deceive and mislead the public about the damaging nature of their fossil fuel products,” gave an address welcoming the party to his city on Monday night.

“We need to hold the fossil fuel companies accountable,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, who helped launch the congressional investigation into Big Oil’s deception, at the DNC’s Environmental & Climate Crisis Council Meeting on Monday. “They need to pay for their lies to the American people."

“Hiding in the shadows” at the DNC

While oil industry disinformation goes unmentioned in the Democrats’ platform, it appears to have continued around — and at — the DNC itself. On Monday, reporter Reese Gorman posted on Twitter that the American Exploration and Production Council, an oil and gas trade association, was running more than 50 billboards in Chicago until the end of the month. “Our Democracy - powered by American oil and natural gas,” a photo of the billboard reads.

On Wednesday, DNC member RL Miller and climate activists disrupted an event hosted by Punchbowl News and sponsored by Exxon, which featured the American Gas Association and Exxon’s senior director of climate strategy and technology, Vijay Swarup. “Exxon lies, people die,” the disruptors chanted.

The American Petroleum Institute was a sponsor of the Milwaukee 2024 Host Committee for the Republican National Convention. But at the DNC, the industry’s presence has been more subtle, said Miller, whose term ends on Thursday.

“Exxon has already been to Trump, who has promised them everything publicly in exchange for a billion dollars, and now Exxon is sneaking around the DNC,” said Miller, who is also founder of Climate Hawks Vote — an organization that aims to train and elect climate leaders. “They are not publicizing their events, they generally seem to be skulking and hiding in the shadows, and you gotta ask why.” 

The nominee

While the 2020 DNC platform wasn’t explicit about holding fossil fuel companies accountable for climate deception, Biden was more direct on the campaign trail, stating that “we should go after [fossil fuel companies], just like we did the drug companies, just like we did with the tobacco companies.” 

While Biden’s administration has not made that a reality, many hope Harris could take up the issue. In 2019, Harris told Mother Jones that the U.S. DOJ should “absolutely” investigate the industry. If she wins the election, expect renewed calls for the nation’s top law enforcement agency to do just that.

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