Message From the Editor

Last week we reported on “climate denial lite,” stemming from a congressional investigation into the fossil fuel industry’s tactic of saying it takes climate change seriously, while behind the scenes undermining its publicly stated goals.

This week, DeSmog’s Joe Fassler digs deep into more hidden Big Oil activity, this time by fossil fuel lobbyists in Colorado. 

Four anti-smog bills currently under consideration in the state legislature there would strengthen air quality oversight while subjecting oil and gas polluters to more rigorous controls. 

You might think that in a state that continually has high levels of air pollution, the legislation would be a top priority. But a new report from nonprofit legislative watchdog F Minus and Brown University’s Climate and Development Lab reveals that several counties retained fossil fuel lobbyists to work on their behalf. 

Not only that, Fassler then reviewed lobbying data from the Colorado Secretary of State  and the results were startling. There’s a troubling pattern of conflicts of interest, where lobbying groups advocate both for and against environmental legislation. 

Fossil fuel lobbyists across the country have sometimes represented environmental groups and organizations that advocate for victims of climate change. 

But Colorado “takes it to the next level,” report co-author James Browning, founder and executive director of F Minus, told DeSmog. Some firms even lobby both for and against specific pieces of legislation.

“Be very wary now,” said Micah Parkin with environmental advocacy nonprofit 350 Colorado. “So that we’re not putting taxpayer dollars . . . toward firms that are acting as double agents — and not truly representing the public interest.”

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Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

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Image credit: Jimmy Thomas (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Andrew Coyne Helped Run Charity That Gave $6.4M to Climate Crisis Denial Groups

— By Geoff Dembicki (11 min. read) —

One of Canada’s top political journalists and pundits served on the board of a foundation that gave $6.4 million to national groups denying climate change is a crisis, according to federal tax data reviewed by DeSmog. 

Records from the Canada Revenue Agency show that Andrew Coyne, currently a columnist at Canada’s national newspaper of record, the Globe and Mail, spent a decade as a director at the Toronto-based Aurea Foundation. From 2006 until the board was disbanded in 2016, those tax records reveal, the foundation gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable donations annually to Canadian think tanks with long records of questioning the science of climate change and attacking government policies that could address the crisis.

New Report ‘Ringing the Alarm Bell’ for Climate Advocacy Conflict of Interest

— By Joe Fassler (5 min) —

In Colorado, fossil fuel interests are vigorously opposing legislative bills meant to clean up the state’s heavily polluted air. That might seem like business as usual, but a new report reveals a more serious dynamic: Statewide, firms lobbying on behalf of oil and gas interests often also represent the very groups the proposed rules are intended to protect.

Taken together, four anti-smog bills currently under consideration in the state legislature — SB 165, SB 166, HB 1330, and HB 1339 — would strengthen air quality oversight in Colorado, while subjecting oil and gas polluters to more rigorous controls. That might seem like a top priority for public entities in a state where 80 percent of residents live in a community with unhealthy air, compared with just 39 percent nationwide, according to the American Lung Association.

Landmark Study Reveals Gas Stove Emissions Boost Childhood Asthma Rates, Adult Deaths

— By Diane Bernard (5 min. read) —

People who use gas or propane stoves in their homes are regularly exposed to harmful levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a new study shows. The household appliances emit pollutants that can be linked to approximately 200,000 current cases of childhood asthma, with 25 percent of those cases tied to nitrogen dioxide alone.

The study, published Friday in Science Advances, represents the first time researchers have quantified the link between gas stoves and asthma from NO2 exposures inside homes. “I didn’t expect to see pollutant concentrations breach health benchmarks in bedrooms within an hour of gas stove use, and stay there for hours after the stove is turned off,” Rob Jackson, a professor at Stanford University and the lead scientist on the study, said in a statement.

A Vaccine for Climate Misinformation

— By Stella Levantesi (6 min. read) —

“The climate crisis is a hoax,” “climate action is too costly,” “the climate has already changed in the past”: Misinformation about climate change is everywhere, coming at us from multiple directions. 

Fake news circulates online. Political leaders make denier and delayer arguments. Companies with a vested interest in the status quo put out greenwashing and obstructionist messaging, as the May 1 U.S. congressional report about fossil-fuel disinformation underscores. 

Net Zero Ministers Met Oil and Gas Representatives Twice a Week in 2023

— By Andrew Kersley (3 min. read) —

Ministers in charge of the UK’s climate policies met with fossil fuel companies and lobbyists over 100 times last year, four times as much as they did external climate scientists, campaigners, and charities, DeSmog can reveal.

Across 2023, 12 major oil companies and industry lobby groups attended meetings 102 times with ministers in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), which leads the government’s climate change and energy policy.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Robert Bradley Jr.

Robert Bradley Jr. is the founder and CEO of the Institute for Energy Research (IER), a not-for-profit organization that focuses on energy analysis that criticizes plans to lower emissions and attacks renewable energy. He is known as a conservative, free-market advocate, associated with right-wing think tanks including the Cato Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He has said that the Paris agreement, “has been exposed on the Left as ‘a fraud … a fake … worthless.’”

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database, Ad & PR Database, and Koch Network Database.