On Tuesday, Bill McKibben had a great op-ed in the Washington Post about all the oil money polluting democracy. And since then, even more dirty dealings have come to light.
For example, McKibben mentioned the Washington State ballot initiative to put a price on carbon, and the millions that fossil fuels are spending against it. But he didn’t mention the depth of their dirty dealings, as reported by Nathalie Graham at the Stranger. Because not only is big oil spending a record $30 million against the measure, it’s exploiting minority communities to do so.
In apparent recognition of the intersectional coalition-building behind the campaign, those advocating against the measure sent out a mailer claiming a number of Latinx businesses oppose the initiative. The problem is, according to Graham, that “most of those businesses had no idea their names were on that list.”
This is hardly the only example of energy interests claiming unearned support. Remember back in May, when we talked about how a Louisiana power company appeared to have hired actors to push for a new power plant?
Well, the New Orleans City Council has wrapped up an investigation. The council found that not only did the PR firm retained by power company Entergy hire actors to crowd out real public comment, but Entergy’s CEO knew all about it.
Entergy had claimed it didn’t know Hawthorne was paying people to attend meetings, but the independent report shows that Entergy’s CEO approved the $29,000 spending on 75 attendees and 10 speakers to show up at the hearing with matching t-shirts. And the speakers were run through “media practice drills” so that they would know how to “handle and divert” questions about their affiliation.
So weird that time and again fossil fuel interests have to hide their string-pulling from the public.
But it’s not just happening in mailers and meetings. The internet is prime for covert persuasion efforts, and Big Oil is certainly taking advantage.
ProPublica has the latest on that front, with a new investigation that found energy interests are still exploiting Facebook’s ad rules, despite its supposed new transparency measures.
Specifically, front groups like “Energy4Us” can easily spend $30,000 on Facebook ads on behalf of their oil industry sponsors at the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, like ExxonMobil, BP and Chevron. ProPublica found similar ads from other industry-funded groups we know and love, like Energy in Depth and Explore Offshore.
Despite Facebook’s supposed insurance that they require political ads to “accurately represent the name of the entity or person responsible,” front groups sponsored by industry don’t have to clearly disclose where their funding comes from and whose interests their ads actually serve. Facebook users who want this info have to click through the ad to the groups’ websites and search out the info on their own.
While oil groups are not the only ones taking advantage of Facebook’s front-group ad acceptance, it does seem to be a leader in the space, with seven of the 12 examples ProPublica found being energy-related.
From false expressions of support from Latinx businesses in your mailbox, to paid actors showing up in person at your City Council meetings, to ads on your computer and phone as you browse Facebook in the privacy of your own home, it seems nowhere is safe from Big Oil’s big money.
Money can buy a lot, though apparently it can’t buy honesty, class or decency.
But the real question is can it buy votes? On that we’ll have to wait and see!
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