The oil industry is fighting hard to kill or scale back climate provisions in President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, the "Build Back Better" plan.
According to a report by InfluenceMap, a think tank that tracks how business and finance impact the climate crisis, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has spent at least $423,000 on Facebook ads that have been viewed 21 million times since August 11 when the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution. Underscoring the behind-the-scenes stakes of the fight to shape legislation aimed at addressing the climate crisis, Mike Sommers, president and CEO of API said in an interview, "We're leaving everything on the field here in terms of our opposition to anti-energy provisions. We're using every tool at our disposal to work against these proposals."
Climate activists have hit back, accusing API of standing in the way of a once-in-a-generation effort to make progress to effectively deal with the climate crisis. Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power, a media operation founded by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, said in a statement, "API knows the future will be built with clean energy and they have a serious political problem. That's why they'll do everything they can to stop climate progress and continue lining the pockets of oil industry CEOs. But their lies don't work anymore. API is losing its power in Washington and Congress will pass the Build Back Better Act and invest in a clean energy future for the next generation."
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