Message From the Editor

“We understand how the oil and gas sector works — we’ve worked in it, studied it, defended it and impacted the policy that regulates it,” a 2015 presentation delivered to the Tennessee Oil and Gas Association begins. “We have been instrumental players in the industry’s highest profile business issues, regulatory hearings, legal disputes and arbitration.” Those bona fides came not from an oil and gas company or investor, but from FTI Consulting, a sprawling consulting firm that markets its strategic communications services to a wide range of industries — including coal, oil, and gas producers. Sharon Kelly investigates a 2015 FTI presentation to pull back the veil on fossil fuel PR.

Video footage obtained by DeSmog shows an offshore oil drilling incident in which heavy equipment fell from a drillship onto an oil and gas wellhead deep below the ocean’s surface. The three short clips offer those on land an unusual window into the world of offshore drilling accidents and remind us, says one expert, “that we are just one sequence of simple mistakes away from another Deepwater Horizon disaster.” Sharon Kelly has the story.

Meanwhile, back on land, some natural gas companies and utilities in Colorado formed a front group to oppose the state’s push towards electrifying homes and businesses, spreading misinformation about the cost of electric heating while also promoting false solutions to lock in the ongoing use of natural gas. One surprising member of “Coloradans for Energy Access” is Xcel Energy, an investor-owned utility that has cultivated a renewables-friendly image. Nick Cunningham reports.

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An FTI Consulting Presentation Pulls Back the Veil on Fossil Fuel PR

— By Sharon Kelly (10 min. read)—

“We understand how the oil and gas sector works — we’ve worked in it, studied it, defended it and impacted the policy that regulates it,” a 2015 presentation delivered to the Tennessee Oil and Gas Association begins. “We have been instrumental players in the industry’s highest profile business issues, regulatory hearings, legal disputes and arbitration.”

Those bona fides came not from an oil and gas company or investor, but from FTI Consulting, a sprawling consulting firm that markets its strategic communications services to a wide range of industries — including coal, oil, and gas producers.

Footage of Offshore Oil Accident Highlights Risks of Deepwater Drilling

— By Sharon Kelly (4 min. read)—

Video footage obtained by DeSmog shows an offshore oil drilling incident in which heavy equipment fell from a drillship onto an oil and gas wellhead deep below the ocean’s surface. 

The three short clips offer those on land an unusual window into the world of offshore drilling accidents. Two experts who reviewed the footage for DeSmog said that the videos appear to show a blowout preventer (BOP) —  a kind of heavy oilfield equipment that is used to control or seal the flow of oil and gas from wells — falling suddenly during a relatively routine procedure. An additional video appears to show the resulting underwater damage filmed from a remotely operated vehicle. Text displayed in one clip reads, in part, “Monitoring BOP Unlatch” and “Pontus,” and a second video of the incident bears the date November 20, 2021.

Gas-Backed Front Group Spreads Misinformation About Costs of Electrification

— By Nick Cunningham (6 min. read) —

A group of natural gas companies and utilities in Colorado formed a front group to oppose the state’s push towards electrifying homes and businesses, spreading misinformation about the cost of electric heating while also promoting false solutions to lock in the ongoing use of natural gas. 

The group, “Coloradans for Energy Access,” is made up of a coalition of gas companies, real estate interests, utilities, and other energy trade associations, including Atmos Energy, American Public Gas Association, and the Consumer Energy Alliance.

Total’s East Africa Pipeline ‘Struggling’ To Find Financiers

— By Maina Waruru (3 min. read) —

Total’s “incredibly risky” crude oil pipeline may still lack the financial backing it requires, campaigners have claimed, as the controversial project moves one step closer to completion.

Once finished, the 1,443km-long East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) could transport up to 216,000 barrels a day from the Lake Albert region in landlocked Uganda to Tanga in Tanzania, with the first oil expected in 2025.

Pipeline Politics Hits Multipolar Realities: Nord Stream 2 and the Ukraine Crisis

— By John Foster, CounterPunch (6 min. read)—

Amid escalating tensions between the United States/NATO and Russia, all eyes are on Ukraine, but Nord Stream 2, a pipeline built to bring Russian gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany, is an integral part of the story.

U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, asserted (January 27), “If Russia invades Ukraine one way or another … we will work with Germany to ensure it (the pipeline) does not move forward.” Delayed by U.S. threats and sanctions, Nord Stream 2 highlights why countries are challenging U.S. leadership.

Rightwing Lobby Group ALEC Driving Laws to Blacklist Companies That Boycott the Oil Industry

— By Adam Barnett (3 min. read)—

The influential rightwing lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is driving a surge in new state laws to block boycotts of the oil industry. The group’s strategy, which aims to protect large oil firms and other conservative-friendly industries, is modelled on legislation to punish divestment from Israel.

Since the beginning of the year, state legislatures in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Indiana have introduced a version of a law drafted by ALEC, called the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, to shield big oil from share selloffs and other measures intended to protest the fossil fuel industry’s role in the climate crisis. A dozen other states have publicly supported the intent of the legislation.

From the Climate Disinformation Database:American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is an organization designed to link state legislators with corporations and create templates for state legislation. Some corporations ALEC has worked with include ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, Peabody Energy, and Reynolds Tobacco. ALEC describes its mission as to “advance limited government, free markets, and federalism at the state level through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector and the general public.” An investigation by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), offers the following description of the organization: “ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that.”

Read the group's profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database