So Cute!! Who Is The American Petroleum Institute Cherry-Picking For Their PR? Why, Barack Obama!!
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Lately, API’s biggest corporate members have been complaining that Trump is actually too anti-climate. As Justin Worland reported for TIME last week, oil and gas companies are facing “increasing pressure to act on climate change.” And Trump is only further harming public opinion of their industry by slashing climate regulations for natural gas. API’s individual members don’t all agree on how to gain climate credibility with the public, Worland reported. But API itself has settled on a strategy: Ditch Trump, align itself publicly with President Barack Obama, and advertise the crap out of it.
The American Petroleum Institute has spent a combined $216,899 on about 131 Facebook ads since May of 2018. About a third of those ads have touted the oil and gas industry’s “greenhouse gas emissions reductions” or “environmental progress.” It wasn’t until last month, however—the night of the September Democratic presidential debate—that Big Oil started using Obama in its pro-climate ads. Using hashtags #ActOnClimate and #DemDebate, API released a video montage featuring inspirational piano music and President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address. “The natural gas boom has led to cleaner power, and greater energy independence,” Obama says, while pledging to “speed up oil and gas permits.” Later, it shows Obama at the 2012 presidential debate against Mitt Romney. “Natural gas isn’t just appearing magically,” he says. “We’re encouraging it and working with the industry.” In the video, Obama also credits natural gas with helping lower carbon emissions during his administration.
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The two other former Obama environmental officials I spoke with also accused API of relying on outdated and incomplete information. Yes, they said, the former president did consider natural gas a cleaner option than coal, which is why he promoted it. “The administration was on record of natural gas being a bridge fuel toward a clean energy future, and I think that’s totally appropriate,” said Thomas Burke, who was EPA’s science adviser during the Obama years.
But that was also before it was widely known that invisible leaks of methane—a powerful greenhouse gas—from natural gas operations were contributing just as much to climate change as burning coal. Even then, the former officials argued, Obama strictly regulated methane leaks from natural gas. “[API’s video] does not reflect the full position of the administration,” Burke said. “But unfortunately, things get taken out of context to be self-serving, to preserve the interests of an industry, or a company.”
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https://climatecrocks.com/2019/10/30/why-the-oil-industry-loves-obama-now/#more-57824