Big Oil is going all-out to fight climate rules in Build Back Better – Boston News, Weather, Sports

(CNN) – America’s oil and gas industry is fighting body and soul to cut or reduce climate regulations in President Joe Biden’s $ 3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan.

“We’re leaving everything here in the field when it comes to our resistance to anti-energy regulations,” Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the powerful American Petroleum Institute, told CNN in an interview.

The API advertises in Swing convention districts around the Build Back Better plan and flashes social media with paid ads.

Since August 11, when the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution, the API has spent at least $ 423,000 on Facebook ads that have been viewed 21 million times, according to a report released Thursday by InfluenceMap, a think tank that the impact of business and finance is following the climate crisis.

“We use every instrument available to us to take action against these proposals,” said Sommers.

Climate activists have blown the API trying to stand in the way of a potentially one-off effort to resolve the climate crisis.

“API knows that the future is built with clean energy and they have a serious political problem. So they will do whatever it takes to stop the climate and continue to fill the pockets of the oil industry CEOs, ”Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power, a media company founded by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, told CNN in a statement.

“But their lies don’t work anymore. API is losing power in Washington and Congress will pass the Build Back Better Act and invest in a clean energy future for the next generation, ”Lodes said.

Exxon is spending money to combat tax hikes

Despite pressure from Big Oil, the Biden administration has signaled that it will remain intrepid in its fight against climate change.

“Tackling the climate crisis is a top priority for President Biden, and this government is using every tool in our toolkit to help solve it. Period, “a White House spokesman told CNN.

ExxonMobil, the country’s largest oil and gas company, has spent at least $ 1.6 million on political ads and advertisements on Facebook since Aug. 11, which have been viewed 31 million times, InfluenceMap said.

Exxon has spent a lot of money in the past few days as lawmakers struggled to finalize an agreement. Between September 21 and September 27 alone, Exxon spent $ 296,954 on Facebook ads that generated 5.4 million impressions, according to InfluenceMap.

In a statement to CNN, Exxon stressed that its concern about Build Back Better is directly focused on the proposed law to raise the corporate tax rate.

“Our lobbying is related to a tax burden that could disadvantage US businesses, and we have made this position public,” Exxon said in the statement. “ExxonMobil stands by our position that higher taxes on American companies make the US less competitive.”

Exxon stressed that it has supported the Paris Agreement since its inception, and the company remains committed to “advocating methane legislation and a macroeconomic price for carbon.”

Natural gas is an important battlefield

However, the API, which Exxon, Chevron, and many other energy companies are a part of, denies methane regulations in the Build Back Better plan.

Legislation would set a methane charge for emissions from the oil and gas industry that are above a certain threshold. Biden recently announced that the United States and the European Union are committed to reducing emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, by nearly 30% by the end of the decade.

Scientists say methane binds 25 times more heat than carbon dioxide, making it a key problem in the climate crisis. Methane is the main constituent of natural gas, the premier method of powering the US grid and heating homes.

“In essence, it is a tax on American natural gas,” said Sommers, API CEO, in an interview with CNN. “This is an example of something we’re trying to fight back.”

The debate comes from the fact that natural gas prices in the US have soared to their highest level since 2014. The price spikes were far worse in Europe and Asia, triggering an energy crisis that led to power outages and bailouts.

“Since natural gas prices rise, especially in winter, legislators should be the last to raise prices for American consumers,” Sommers said of the methane charges.

Europe’s gas crisis

Sommers added that Europe’s experience of skyrocketing natural gas prices should serve as a warning to US politicians.

“There is a very rapid rush for the energy transition in Europe. I would say it was too fast, ”he said. “Legislators in the United States should pay close attention to what they see in Europe as a warning sign of what could happen here.”

Of course, Sommer’s admitted policy is only one factor in Europe. There is another factor: Russia.

“Russia is still a difficult player in the energy markets,” said Sommers.

Indeed, Goldman Sachs warned in a report on Friday that the widespread availability of Russian natural gas supplies is one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in Europe. “Russia can exacerbate or possibly remedy the gas shortage in the EU,” wrote Goldman Sachs.

Greening the network. But how fast?

The API also seeks to water down the Clean Electricity Payment Program, a key element of Build Back Better. The $ 150 billion program aims to incentivize a transition to renewable energy by rewarding utility companies and electricity companies with federal grants for increasing their clean energy use.

Sommers said the API was working hard to remove or amend the clean power program from legislation, arguing that natural gas helped reduce emissions in the energy industry.

“We think if you accelerate this transition, costs will go up and reliability will go down,” said Sommers.

Proponents argue that the clean energy program would create millions of new jobs while addressing the climate crisis by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector.

President Joe Biden’s goal is to have 100% clean energy on the U.S. electricity grid by 2035, an ambitious goal that would require a move away from not just coal but also natural gas.

The API said it would continue to push for government action to reduce emissions, citing a climate change framework released earlier this year that calls for investment in breakthrough technologies, methane regulation and “market-based carbon pricing”.

“Republicans and Democrats agree that climate change needs to be addressed,” said Sommers. “Our industry is doing it too and is taking action through innovation and supporting measures such as CO2 pricing and the direct regulation of methane.”

Still, the API’s sweeping effort to water down parts of Build Back Better underscores its behind-the-scenes struggle to shape laws to address the climate crisis.

The CNN Wire
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