📚 US Lawmakers Accuses Big Oil of a Long-Running Climate Disinformation Campaign

A year-long investigation by a Congressional commitee is accussing the fossil fuel industry of spreading climate disinformation. CNN reports: The committee found the fossil fuel industry is "posturing on climate issues while avoiding real commitments" to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Lawmakers said it has sought to portray itself as part of the climate solution, even as internal industry documents reveal how companies have avoided making real commitments. "Today's documents reveal that the industry has no real plans to clean up its act and is barreling ahead with plans to pump more dirty fuels for decades to come," House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney told CNN in a statement.... The committee said documents uncovered also showed the fossil fuel industry has presented natural gas as a so-called "bridge fuel" to transition to cleaner sources of energy, all while doubling down on its long-term reliance on fossil fuels with no clear plan of action to fully transition to clean energy.... In a 2016 email from a BP executive to John Mingé, then-Chairman and President of BP America, and others, about climate and emissions, an employee assessed that the company often adopted an obstructionist strategy with regulators, noting, "we wait for the rules to come out, we don't like what we see, and then try to resist and block." "The fossil fuel industry has of late been involved in extensive "greenwashing" — misleading claims in advertisements, particularly on social media, claiming or suggesting that they are "Paris aligned," and that they are committed to meaningful solutions," Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard professor who has studied the fossil fuel industry's rebuke of climate science and consulted for law firms that have brought suits against the fossil fuel industry, told CNN. "Numerous analyses shows that these claims are untrue."

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