Oil and Gas Industry Seized on War in Ukraine to Water Down Climate Policy, Report Shows

A new report details the PR and lobbying blitz from fossil fuel companies in the early days of the Russian invasion that aimed at benefiting oil and gas interests, while offering little for the current crisis.

By Nick Cunningham

While Russia dropped missiles on Kyiv and laid siege to the port of Mariupol in late February, the oil and gas industry took advantage of the war in Ukraine to spread misinformation about the causes of the energy crisis in order to apply political pressure and pursue a longstanding wish list of policy changes, according to new research. 

Energy prices soared in the aftermath of the Russian invasion. In response, the oil and gas industry waged a concerted influence campaign that blamed the Biden administration’s climate policies for undermining American energy independence and for causing a spike in prices, according to a report from InfluenceMap, a corporate watchdog group. Across an array of platforms, the industry and its allies framed more drilling and looser regulation as a solution to these problems, and advocated for policies that had tenuous connections to the global energy crisis but were nonetheless favorable to the fossil fuel industry.

“The U.S. oil and gas sector has consistently argued for policies that allow for new or increased fossil fuel exploration, and against policies that would reduce demand. But what’s changed in recent months is the intensity of that message,” said Faye Holder, program manager for InfluenceMap. “The sector has quickly mobilized around the war in Ukraine and high gas prices to promote the need for more ‘American-made energy,’ often relying on potentially misleading or questionable claims.”

DeSmog previously reported on oil executives’ and lobbyists’ PR blitz in the days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a move which sought to take advantage of the crisis to secure largely unrelated policy victories. But InfluenceMap’s new study offers a deeper and more comprehensive examination of how the industry attempted to influence public opinion.

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A particularly active period occurred just before and immediately after the onset of war in Europe. Between February 4 and March 31, Energy Citizens ran 233 individual ads related to energy security and energy independence, which were seen 19.6 million times, equivalent to roughly 10 percent of all Facebook users in the United States, according to InfluenceMap. By way of comparison, Energy Citizens only ran 67 ads focusing on energy security and energy independence in the last three months of 2021, which were viewed 6 million times.

The echo chamber also kicked into high gear at the onset of war, amplifying misleading claims across media platforms. Fox News mentioned the defunct Keystone XL pipeline 141 times as part of its Ukraine coverage between February 22 and February 28. But the tar sands pipeline — which had been dead for over a year — had no bearing on the gyrations in energy markets in early 2022. Even if President Biden hadn’t pulled the plug on it in his first day in office, the pipeline project would not have been constructed before 2023. 

Oil executives were also not shy about trying to mislead the public about the nature of the energy crisis, according to InfluenceMap. At the CERAWeek Conference in Houston in March, ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said that “poor energy policy, poor regulatory policy” and a “rapid push to renewable energy and a maligning of the fossil fuel industry” contributed to higher gasoline prices, which in places like California were topping $6.00 a gallon. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said the pursuit of “ever cleaner” energy compromised affordability and reliability. 

In late March, AFP Fact Check, a global fact-checking organization, debunked the assertion that climate policies from the Biden administration somehow restrained oil and gas output, or undermined American energy security,  calling it “misleading.” 

READ MORE:

https://www.desmog.com/2022/05/24/oil-gas-industry-ukraine-climate-policy-influencemap/

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