The Climate 202: House Democrats probe PR industry's role in advertising for Big Oil
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Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Today we're worried about a shortage of Sriracha because of extreme droughts in Mexico, where the hot-sauce company sources its chile peppers. One could say it's a climate-change-fueled condiment conundrum. 🌶 But first:
Exclusive: House Democrats probe PR industry's role in advertising for Big Oil
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) at a hearing June 8. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/Reuters)
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) at a hearing June 8. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/Reuters)
Two House Democrats are pressing public relations and advertising firms on their work to improve the environmental images of fossil fuel companies, despite their role in the climate crisis.
House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (Ariz.) and Rep. Katie Porter (Calif.), who chairs the panel's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, are asking five PR firms to turn over information about their campaigns for oil and gas clients on the topic of climate change, according to letters shared exclusively with The Climate 202.
“For decades, fossil fuel companies and associations have engaged in public relations campaigns to downplay the threat of climate change and the central role fossil fuels have played in causing it,” the lawmakers wrote. “These influence campaigns were intended to prevent the country from taking critical steps to address the climate crisis.”
The letters were addressed to five PR and advertising firms — Blue Advertising, DDC Public Affairs, FTI Consulting, Singer Associates and Story Partners — as well as the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association.
The lawmakers requested all documents and communications concerning the firms' work for the fossil fuel industry from Jan. 1, 2013, to the present. They also asked for invoices that show the payments from each oil, gas or coal company.
The recipients of the letters have two weeks — until June 27 — to provide this information. If they fail to meet this deadline, Grijalva could wield his subpoena power to compel them to do so.
In a statement, Grijalva said the letters were motivated in part by former ExxonMobil lobbyist Keith McCoy, who admitted that the oil major has sought to blunt President Biden's climate agenda in a secretly recorded video released last year.
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“Thanks to the accidental truth-telling by the former ExxonMobil lobbyist, we know there is a lot to uncover about the ways fossil fuel companies spread disinformation and lies about climate change,” Grijalva said. “If we’re going to take meaningful action against climate change, we need to be armed with facts and science, not industry propaganda. The American people deserve to know the truth and we intend to do our job to find it.”
Megan Bloomgren, senior vice president for communications at the American Petroleum Institute, emailed in a statement to The Climate 202: “At a time of record inflation and rising energy costs, we need solutions to unlock more American energy to keep the lights on and meet demand while reducing US emissions. And that’s exactly what our industry has been focused on. Any suggestion to the contrary is false.”
A spokesman for FTI Consulting declined to comment on the letter. The other four PR firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Climate 202 on Sunday. This report will be updated with any more responses we receive.
Grijalva and Porter previously sent letters in February to six organizations that give out PR awards, requesting similar information. The panel has not yet publicly released any responses to those missives.
PRESSURE ON PR FIRMS
The letters come as researchers and climate activists increasingly scrutinize the role of the PR and ad industry in helping fossil fuel companies burnish their environmental reputations and block efforts to slow global warming.
In February, more than 450 scientists called on leading PR and ad firms to drop their fossil fuel industry clients, our colleague Steven Mufson reported at the time. The firms’ campaigns for these companies, the scientists said, “represent one of the biggest barriers to the government action science shows is necessary to mitigate the ongoing climate emergency.”
FTI Consulting, which received a letter from Grijalva and Porter, has designed and staffed a sprawling network of influence campaigns for some of the world's largest oil and gas companies, the New York Times reported.
Edelman, a prestigious PR firm that did not receive a letter from the lawmakers, has faced intense pressure to cut ties with Big Oil from Clean Creatives, a campaign pushing the PR industry to quit fossil fuels.
In January, Edelman reviewed whether its client list is compatible with its climate principles, doing a “deep dive” on 20 companies with particularly large emissions. So far, however, the firm has not severed ties with any clients.
“We have incorporated climate principles into our client acceptance process, focusing on clients in emission-intensive industries,” an Edelman spokesman said in an email to The Climate 202. “We have decided not to pursue certain new opportunities, and established ongoing follow-up and review of some assignments. We are unable to share specific information due to confidentiality agreements with our clients.”
Pressure points
Biden’s race to ease gas prices sparks an internal struggle to maintain climate goals
President Biden speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
President Biden speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
President Biden sounded an optimistic note in April when he announced a plan to expand the use of ethanol over the summer to help ease soaring gasoline prices, declaring that “biofuels have a role to play right now” during a visit to a biofuels plant in Iowa.
But internally, Biden criticized the policy as ineffective and questioned the value of that trip upon return in a spontaneous meeting in the Oval Office with top administration officials, including chief of staff Ron Klain, according to two people familiar with the conversations, The Washington Post's Tyler Pager reports.
Even before the plan to boost ethanol was announced, Biden expressed concern that the initiative would exaggerate ethanol's ability to dramatically reduce gasoline costs and could derail his ambitious climate agenda, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and senior staff urged Biden to continue with the policy, arguing that it would at least help the Midwest.
The private episode comes as Biden — desperate to overcome historically high inflation — increasingly voices his anger over the administration's inability to rein in prices at the pump. The longer Americans feel rising costs across the board, the more the president’s agenda from the campaign trail is being overshadowed or redirected, with climate taking a hit.
Biden boosts federal assistance in New Mexico as it faces record wildfire
Air Force One over New Mexico. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Air Force One over New Mexico. (Evan Vucci/AP)
President Biden on Saturday said he was ramping up federal aid in New Mexico to help the state fight its largest wildfire on record, Chris Megerian and Morgan Lee report for the Associated Press. The blaze began with a controlled burn set by the Forest Service and has destroyed hundreds of homes across 500 square miles since early April, according to federal officials.
During a visit Saturday to an emergency operations center in Santa Fe, Biden said the federal government would cover the full cost of the emergency response and debris removal from the fire, rather than sharing that responsibility with the state government. He added that he would also support having the federal government pay for the damage caused by the fire, such as lost property and income, but a decision of that scale would require congressional input.
International climate
Climate disasters collide with Ukraine war to deepen hunger crisis
People rest under a bridge in New Delhi on May 29 as the northern region of India experienced the warmest weather in 122 years. (Saumya Khandelwal/Bloomberg)
People rest under a bridge in New Delhi on May 29 as the northern region of India experienced the warmest weather in 122 years. (Saumya Khandelwal/Bloomberg)
A dangerous feedback loop between climate-change-fueled disasters and the war in Ukraine has sent food prices soaring around the globe, threatening a hunger crisis as the planet warms, The Post's Sarah Kaplan reports.
Before the conflict, Ukraine was a major exporter of grains. When Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, crop-rich India was seen as a global buffer. But India announced in May that it would end all grain exports after erratic rains and scorching heat devastated its production.
“These are millions of people who literally don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” said Brian Lander, deputy director of the World Food Program's emergencies division.
Agency alert
Chemical safety board chair resigns, citing lack of confidence in the agency
Katherine Lemos, the head of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, submitted her resignation to the White House on Friday, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg’s Ari Natter, leaving the five-person board with two members.
Lemos, a Trump administration appointee, wrote in the letter that “recent priorities of the Board have eroded my confidence in our ability to focus” on the independent regulatory agency’s mission.
The federal safety agency is charged with investigating major industrial accidents. It has played a role in scrutinizing the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and, more recently, a June 2019 explosion at a Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery.
President Donald Trump had proposed getting rid of the agency in each of his annual budget requests, saying its focus on regulation “frustrated both regulators and industry.”
On the Hill this week
Monday: The House Rules Committee will meet to discuss the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which would provide funding to the Interior Department for wildlife conservation projects across the country.
Tuesday: The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery will hold a hearing on President Biden’s proposed budget request for fiscal 2023 for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell will testify.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will meet to discuss short- and long-term solutions to the extreme drought parching the American West. The committee will also consider the nominations of David Applegate to be director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Carmen Cantor to be assistant secretary for insular and international affairs at the Interior Department and Evelyn Wang to be the Energy Department’s director of advanced research projects.
The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will hold a hearing to examine statewide perspectives on slashing methane emissions. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) will testify.
Wednesday: The House Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing on the role of innovative climate research in supporting agricultural resiliency.
The House Natural Resources Committee will mark up numerous land and wildlife bills.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will meet to discuss three bills on protecting and restoring coastal habitats amid the warming climate.
On Thursday: The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife will hold a legislative hearing on multiple conservation bills, including the Water Data Act and the Rio Grande Water Security Act from Rep. Melanie Ann Stansbury (D-N.M.), which would create a standardized water data framework and help ensure water security.
The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Energy, the Environment and Cyber will hold a hearing on how the United States can support European energy security amid the war in Ukraine.
In the atmosphere
Extreme heat sets records from California to Texas and will swell east — Jason Samenow for The Post
Vomiting. The loss of strength’: Southwest heat drives health fears — Joshua Partlow for The Post
How fashion giants recast plastic as good for the planet — Hiroko Tabuchi for the New York Times
How SCOTUS’ upcoming climate ruling could defang Washington — Alex Guillén and Sarah Owermohle for Politico
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