News & Analysis
October 6, 2021
Public reporting has shown that Chevron and its predecessors knew about the dangers posed by their fossil fuel products for decades, but engaged in a widespread campaign of deception to protect their profits.
Chevron now faces lawsuits from 18 states and municipalities that are seeking to hold the corporation accountable for lying about the damages it knew its products would cause. It is also the first Big Oil company to be the subject of a Federal Trade Commission complaint for deceptive business practices.
The American people deserve answers, and as Chevron’s CEO, Wirth must testify. Here is just some of the evidence that members of the House Oversight Committee should ask him to explain:
Chevron Knew About the “Catastrophic” Impact of Its Products Decades Ago
A representative from Texaco (now Chevron) participated in an industry taskforce on CO2 and Climate and attended a 1980 meeting that discussed an industry report predicting global warming from fossil fuel use would lead to “globally catastrophic effects.”
Chevron Worked to Discredit Climate Science and Spread Climate Denial and Disinformation
Chevron subsidiary Pittsburg and Midway Coal Mining was a member of a communications front group formed by coal companies in 1991 to “reposition global warming as theory (not fact).” The Information Council for the Environment was responsible for public campaigns that included advertisements in The New York Times and other influential publications with messages like “Who told you the earth was warming…Chicken Little?” and “Doomsday is cancelled. Again.” ICE’s campaign also included radio commercials read by Rush Limbaugh, a nationwide public relations tour, mailers, and more.
Representatives from Chevron helped draft a 1998 oil and gas industry multimillion dollar communications plan with a stated goal to sow uncertainties about climate science among the public and “those (e.g., Congress) who chart the future U.S. course on global climate change.” According to the document from the American Petroleum Institute, “Victory Will Be Achieved When … Average citizens ‘understand’ (recognize) uncertainties in climate science; recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the ‘conventional wisdom.’”... and when those who support the international climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, are seen as being “out of touch with reality.”
Chevron Misled the Public about the Threat of Climate Change While Preparing Its Own Assets for a Warming Globe
In 1974, Chevron received a patent for drilling equipment that could withstand increased interference from lateral ice masses, and allow the company to drill in areas with increased ice movement as temperatures rose. Texaco (now Chevron) also sought a patent for equipment that would allow the company to drill areas of the Arctic that would only become accessible as the region warmed.
Chevron Continues to Pollute While Falsely Depicting Itself as Committed to Climate Solutions
Chevron has launched paid media campaigns that tout the company as a leader in clean energy, but the oil giant ended its small renewable power group in 2014, and between 2010 and 2018, it invested just 0.2 percent of its annual capital expenditure in low-carbon energy.
These same campaigns disingenuously promote natural gas as a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, despite the fact that natural gas is a significant source of CO2 and methane emissions that may present more of a climate threat than coal when all emissions sources, including leaks and uncapped and abandoned wells, are considered.
Robert Redlinger, who was director of a Chevron effort to develop large renewable energy projects until leaving in 2010, explained to Grist: “When you have a very successful and profitable core oil and gas business, it can be quite difficult to justify investing in renewables. It requires significant commitment at the most senior levels of management. I didn’t perceive that kind of commitment from Chevron during my time with the firm.”
