WEBVTT - S6, Part2 | Ep 5: The Disaster Capitalist Response to Russia-Ukraine 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.840 On February twenty fourth, twenty twenty two, one of the 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:20.599 world's most powerful petro states, gave the gas industry a lifeline. 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:24.560 The month long buildup of Russian troops on the border 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:31.960 with Ukraine has turned now into an invasion Ukraine under attack. 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.120 It was an echo of Russia's invasion of Crimea back 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:42.319 in twenty fourteen. Back then, the world was caught off 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:46.040 guard by Russia's aggression. Even the fossil fuel companies, which 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:50.000 lost millions when the US imposed stiff sanctions on Russia, 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:54.320 and US oil companies like Exxonmobile found themselves holding assets 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:58.240 worth nothing. This time, the industry was ready with a 0:00:58.320 --> 0:00:59.880 proactive response. 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.640 I think on February twenty fourth, I freaked out because 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:08.880 within hours of Putin's invasion, just watching serious patterns like 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:12.720 emerge where you know, API and other trade associations were 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:18.639 echoing similar talking points immediately, anti Biden talking points, anti 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:20.240 renewable energy talking points. 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.279 Christine Arena is a public relations expert who previously worked 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.800 as a VP for Edelman PR back when the firm 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:33.080 was handling the account for the American Petroleum Institute, or API. 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.360 She left that job in twenty fifteen and has a 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:37.080 new gig. 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:39.679 Now really been focused for the last seven years on 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:45.600 climate accountability, and that is helping lawmakers to assess greenwash 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.920 climate disinformation, how it occurs, how it spreads, and how 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:50.600 it's working. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.760 And there was a lot of questionable messaging to observe 0:01:55.880 --> 0:02:00.000 over the past few months. First, for some context, even 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.000 before Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the industry was lobbying the 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.320 White House for weak sanctions. They wanted to avoid a 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:11.320 repeat of the losses they suffered after Russia's invasion of Crimea. 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:17.560 The day after the invasion, industry groups were ready lng allies, 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.640 and the American Exploration and Production Council wrote a joint 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:25.400 letter to President Biden urging support of the US natural 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:31.240 gas industry. America's vast energy resources are a strategic asset 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.520 that can help keep US prices low while supporting our 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:39.880 allies abroad. The trade groups wrote policies such as pausing 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:45.040 leasing on federal lands, preventing new pipeline infrastructure, and discouraging 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:50.320 investments across the hydrocarbon value chain, hamper US production, thereby 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.240 driving up prices and making the world more reliant on 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:59.399 energy from nations such as Russia. Arena says she saw 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.880 this type of messaging blaming high gas prices on the 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.120 few US policies that have been unfriendly to the gas 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:10.840 industry emerge immediately and consistently across both social media and 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:12.520 broadcast media channels. 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.280 There were a number of proxies repeating the same talking points, 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.760 and then there was like a media creative produced including 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:22.800 ads on television. 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.960 Media creative, by the way, is pr industry speak for 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:27.880 ads and branded graphics. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.120 And I just felt this very eerie sense that this 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.560 was just too coordinated given the timeframe from the triggering 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:39.440 event when Putin invaded to the release of this creative. 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:42.560 The intervals were too tight, the messages were too word 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:48.200 for word. This is an organized disinformation effort geared towards 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:50.840 affecting policy in the short term. 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.560 That made Arena reach out to the folks at Influence Map, 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.800 a think tank that measures the impact of corporate lobbying 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.000 on climate policy around the world. 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.680 I'm fee Holda and I'm a program manager at influence Map. 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.560 We track around three hundred and fifty companies and one 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.160 hundred and fifty industry associations on a weekly basis for 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:14.920 any evidence of engagement with either climate policies or the 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:16.640 broader debate on climate change. 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.280 I spoke with both Holder and Arena in early May 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:24.400 before Influence Map publicly released what they discovered about the 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.960 industry's recent messaging. Influence Map also looped in the group's 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:33.080 Media Matters and Triple Check to do a comprehensive media 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:37.279 and social media listening campaign. In other words, they looked 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.800 at everywhere industry spokespeople and their proxies were turning up, 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.520 what they were seeing, when, and how much impact it 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:45.000 all had. 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:50.240 For a media campaign where you're engaging different stakeholders and 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:54.200 you're writing the talking points, if you want your proxies, 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.080 you know, other political officials, other organizations to repeat the 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.360 same talking points, that takes a lease through weeks. If 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:05.320 you're producing a creative ad that is on television, that 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:09.279 could take two months plus in a tight timeline, it 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.960 takes the time to prepare that to pitch producers to 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:15.719 get Mike Summers on TV. 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.760 Mike Summers is the President and CEO of the American 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:23.960 Petroleum Institute or API U us on TV a bunch 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:25.560 this spring to. 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:29.960 Coach all of the different individuals who are again repeating 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.200 API talking points word for word that takes some time 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:37.359 a coordination. I do personally believe that the communications pieces 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.240 were put into place and ready to go prior to 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.400 February twenty fourth, and that the fossil fuel industry knew 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.840 it stood to benefit from Russia's war, not just in 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.839 terms of near term gas prices, but you know, a 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:51.359 shorter term policy graph. 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:55.039 In the week of the Ukraine invasion, we've seen a 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.920 resurgence of the Bridgefield narrative, but we've also seen a 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:03.920 new form of mess one that almost makes greenwashing seem point. 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:08.599 That's our story today. This is the finale of season six, 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:21.640 Part two. The new climate villains stay with us. 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:32.040 One that we saw a lot of was blaming climate 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.320 policies for the decrease in a supply of oil, which 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.800 then led to this increase in gas prices. And these 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.800 arguments were kind of going on before the war in 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:43.760 Ukraine began, but quickly got tied together. 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:48.360 That's influenced maps Fayholder describing one of the key industry 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.520 talking points that took hold of this spring. Here's American 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:57.560 Petroleum Institute President Mike Summers talking to CNBC as Putin 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:00.919 began to build up troops and weaponry alone the Ukraine 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.120 border in late twenty twenty one. You can hear them 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:08.400 already here blaming climate policies for increasing gas prices. 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:11.240 There are a lot of factors at play as to 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.160 why energy prices are surging, but certainly one of the 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.880 key factors is that the Biden administration has made an 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.320 effort to reduce production in the United States. One of 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.080 their first acts, for example, was cutting off the Keystone 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.360 XL pipeline. One of their second acts was cutting off 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:31.400 leasing and permitting on federal lands, and then they cut 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.560 off access to anwar in Alaska. 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.440 And here he is making the same point in an 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:41.920 interview on CBS post Ukraine invasion in early March. 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:44.920 The most important thing that we can do right now 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:49.080 is really focus on increasing supply here in the United States, 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:54.240 and that means adopting a regulatory framework that advances American 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:55.160 energy leadership. 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.440 And Mike, what exactly would that look like. 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:01.640 But we have to remember at the beginning of the 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.800 Biden administration, they did a couple of big things that 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:07.360 really dampened the amount of oil and gas that we 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:09.560 were producing in the United States. You know, first they 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.360 cut off the Keystone XCEL pipeline. Then they put a 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:17.000 moratorium on leasing and permitting on federal lands and on 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.440 offshore waters, and then they cut off supply from the 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:25.120 Alaska Natural National Wildlife Refuge. So really the first week 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.840 of this Biben administration was very harmful to the domestic 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.000 production of oil and natural gas. 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:38.040 That is some consistent messaging and creative spin given the reality. 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.880 For the record, about twenty five percent of fossil fuel 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:47.120 drilling happens on public lands. The rest is entirely controlled 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.800 by private companies. The fossil fuel industry is sitting on 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.560 at least a decade's worth of unused leases, so it's 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.760 unlikely that a lack of new leases has impacted current 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:04.120 production or supply. Now let's talk about the Keystone XL pipeline. 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.760 A lot of folks think this was an active pipeline 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:08.080 that somehow got shut down. 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:09.320 Not so. 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:14.240 The Keystone XL pipeline was intended to transport Tarsans oil 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.280 from Canada to export terminals in the Gulf of Mexico. 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:23.040 Two thirds of that oil was earmarked for non US customers. 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.800 Had the pipeline not been canceled, it would have come 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.720 online by about twenty twenty six, so the idea that 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.240 it would play a huge role in oil supply in 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:40.440 twenty twenty two is ridiculous. And now the Alaskan National 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:45.120 Wildlife Refuge or ANMAR, the holy grail of US oil companies. 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:48.760 For some reason, the refuge had been off limits to 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.520 oil drilling since nineteen seventy seven. There was a brief 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.840 moment in twenty seventeen when the Trump administration reversed that, 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:01.440 but so few leases were actually sold it surprised even 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:04.720 the fossil fuel industry, and none of the companies that 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.040 got those leases had even started drilling yet thanks to 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.679 multiple legal challenges, when the Biden administration reversed the decision 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:17.040 to allow that drilling in twenty twenty, so again not 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.280 something that had a huge impact on the supply here 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.080 in the US. These are the only pieces of climate 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.720 policy that Summers can point to over and over again 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.960 because they're the only ones the Biden administration has managed 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.720 to pass, and none of them have any impact on 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:37.040 the current supply of domestic oil and gas in the 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:41.680 United States or the price at the pump. But these 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:45.160 facts don't seem to matter in the context of Russia. Ukraine. 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:50.080 These talking points really took hold. Fayholder from Influence Map 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.720 explains how this message led into another key narrative for 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.480 the industry to. 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.319 Fix the issue with gas prices. The answer was then 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.640 to increase the supply of oil and gas, and that's 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.800 where Ukraine then got brought in because increasing the supply 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:06.880 of oil and gas, according to the oil and gas companies, 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:11.920 would also increase energy security energy independence, and we started 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.560 seeing those narratives really being brought into play, particularly through 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:19.400 large ad campaigns and from the industry associations, in particular 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:21.480 American Patronum Institute being the big one. 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.600 According to Holder and Arena, there were three dominant messages 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:30.440 that emerged in the weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. First, 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:36.560 climate policies were responsible for high gas prices. Then increased 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:40.000 production is the answer to both lower gas prices and 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:44.600 increased national security. And then a third one that was 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:49.360 new and somewhat surprising. Here's Christine Arena again to explain. 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.439 The notion that it's activists and woke people they should 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.280 be the ones to fight climate change. You know, it's 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:00.240 not relevant for real Americans. This notion that president and 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.920 cares more about climate activists than he does about real Americans. 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.000 So there's a concerted push around these narratives. 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:13.400 Leveraging crises to increase profits is nothing new for the 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.680 fossil fuel industry or any other industry. It's what the 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:20.959 author Naomi Klein calls disaster capitalism, and the oil and 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.120 gas guys are experts at it. Client says watching their 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.280 response to Hurricane Katrina back in two thousand and five 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.160 is actually what drew her into the climate conversation. 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:39.200 In the aftermath of these shocking events like wars, economic crises, 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:43.160 and increasingly natural disasters, there is a kind of corporate 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:47.679 feeding frenzy. That was certainly the case in New Orleans 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.440 after Katrina. So I went there because Halliburton was there, 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:53.880 and Blackwater was there, and Bechte was there, and the 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.240 charter school movement was there, and all of these private 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.440 real estate developers were there, and it was just like 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:03.679 this in saying, freeding frenzy before the water had even 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.720 drained from the streets. But when I was there, I 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.600 definitely had this feeling that I was looking at our 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.720 collective future. If we stay on the road we're on, 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.560 that we would be facing a future with more of 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.520 these kinds of climate shocks intersecting with a weak and 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:27.839 neglected public sphere, overlaid with systems of white supremacy, and 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.199 then disaster capitalists swooping in with plans to make it 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:32.199 all more unequal. 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:39.240 Disaster capitalism has only intensified since then, and what's happened 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.280 in the week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:46.680 a perfect example. Researchers not only looked at what messages 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.880 took hold and when, but also at who was sharing 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:54.720 and amplifying these messages. Seven companies and trade groups dominated 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:59.560 the news cycle, including some usual suspects like API, The 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.960 Number of Commerce, Chevron, and Conoco Phillips. But there were 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.800 some new folks at the party, our old friends at 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:11.720 the American Gas Association, for one, and Sempra, the national 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:15.319 energy company that now owns sokel Gas. 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.760 It's just so incredible. At the same time natural gas 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:24.000 is being mass marketed as the world's greenest effort, the 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:28.400 industry leadership is out there talking about how harmful it 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.640 is an anti American it is to view any discussion 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.200 through the lens of climate change. 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.560 Holder says it's new to see gas industry spokespeople playing 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.680 a similar role to the rest of the fossil fuel industry. 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:43.160 I think the. 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.600 Gas industry has definitely got a lot louder and more 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.480 active in the past few years, and you can see 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.400 that precisely through companies like SEMPRA, and i'd also mention 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.720 American Gas Association. I think I've been at influenced map 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.160 tracking companies and industry associations for nearly four years now, 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:01.320 and I maybe head of American Gas Association in the 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:03.880 past two years, which not say they didn't exist before, 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:05.800 but they've just got a lot more active. 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:10.280 That timing, as we've noted in this season, parallels the 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.440 spread of gas bands in the last couple of years. 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.160 I think maybe the gas industry is starting to feel 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:22.440 the heat a bit more around their culpability for climate change. Yeah, 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.520 as is kind of evidenced by these gas bands, and 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.400 so I wonder whether it's maybe they're going on the 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.200 defense of a bit more in that similar vein that 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.160 API has done for a long time, and US Chamber 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.120 and those kind of groups that have always represented oil 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:40.480 particularly joining that effort. 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.360 These messages from trade groups and utility presidents might not 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.880 seem like a big deal, but when they're amplified via 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:53.200 advertising and proxy spokespeople, they can reach really large audiences. 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:57.520 We've seen a heavy, heavy use of social media, both 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:02.160 in advertising and organic content, and it's definitely a key 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:05.920 strategy and outlet for the oil and gas sector. I 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.360 think they feed off each other nicely. A lot of 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.160 the things that are retweeted by API, for instance, are 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.240 Mike Summers on folk News, So it's almost the way 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.040 that they can come at it from both angles cover 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:16.960 the widest audience. 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.400 Yeah, we're seeing that in the data. That's what the 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:24.080 data shows us. The biggest impressions are on social media 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:28.360 platforms Facebook and Twitter specifically, and then to a lesser extent, 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:32.280 it would be you know, your right leaning media outlets 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.240 like Fox Daily Wire, Bright Bart, Newsmax, Daily Caller, and 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:40.240 to face point, there's that cross amplification, but by far 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:45.120 the majority of media impressions are happening through social media channels, 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:49.040 and then you amplify that by the echo chamber that 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:54.400 is like Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Alex Epstein, even Greg 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:59.520 Abbott from Texas, Dan Crenshaw, Marsha blackburn, Ted Cruz of 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:05.920 all of those accounts are amplifying greatly these misleading impressions. 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.640 According to the Influence Map report, in the weeks leading 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:13.280 up to and following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the American 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.400 Petroleum Institute alone ran at least six hundred and fifty 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:21.480 one ads on Facebook, many of which promoted the role 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:25.560 of American gas and oil being essential for energy independence. 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:31.040 Their ads reached around ten percent of Facebook users. To 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.119 put that in context, the biggest advice on the platform 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.760 tend to deliver at the absolute most about five percent 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:42.080 of users. Media Matters ran a parallel analysis of the 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.800 types of messages the industry was pushing from late twenty 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.560 twenty one, when Putin first started to mobilize troops to 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:53.720 March twenty twenty two, when the Biden administration began to 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:58.199 concede to the industry's demands. They found three key points 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.879 repeated over and over those same messages that hold aer 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.159 an arena. We're seeing that climate policy is responsible for 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:09.120 high gas prices, that the answer to those prices and 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:14.640 national security is increased American production, and that climate policy 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:19.600 is something only liberal, woke elites care about, not real Americans. 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:24.080 Six hundred and fifty one Facebook ads in that short 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:28.119 time period. That's a big buy. It's unusual. But then 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.960 if you look at Twitter for media matters in triple check, 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:37.600 their data shows that misinformation peaked, you know, February twenty fourth. 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:40.679 Literally there's a huge peak where we get to one 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:46.200 hundred fossil fuel misinformation posts that yielded over five million likes, comments, 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:46.720 and shares. 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.080 The most important number in all of this, though, is 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:55.280 a pretty small one twenty. That's the number of days 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:59.479 between the launch of the Industry's Russia Ukraine campaign and 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:04.719 the industry Tree's first policy wins. Those started with the 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:09.280 liquefied natural gas or LNG decisions. The Department of Energy 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.879 granted long term permits to increase the volume of LNG 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:18.080 exported from two key terminals on March sixteenth. 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.080 So that's two weeks maybe from the start of the crisis. 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.240 During this whole situation, there was a new climate policy 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.639 up for discussion at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.400 would have required new gas pipelines to take into account 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:36.000 the impacts on climate change and local communities. That just 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:38.160 got completely rolled back. 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.400 That decision was followed by one to roll back climate 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:49.000 requirements on pipelines, and then more permits for new export terminals. 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:54.399 Then March twenty fifth, twenty twenty two, Biden announced an 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.919 even bigger win for the industry, a deal with the 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:02.280 European Union for American producer to supply an extra fifteen 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:07.920 billion cubic meters of LNG to Europe in twenty twenty two. 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.800 And that's not all. Beyond twenty twenty two. The two 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:15.400 agreed to lock in demand for US gas at fifty 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:19.320 billion cubic meters a year until twenty. 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.760 Thirty, allegedly to help wean them off Russian energy, but 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.720 certainly to the US natural gas industry's advantage. And so 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:29.840 that's just a little over four weeks. That's a very 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:34.840 short interval, and I feel that interval should alarm lawmakers, 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:39.920 it should alarm people in the climate community. That's disaster capitalism. 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:42.959 I think you could call it a disinformation driven heist 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:45.320 of public policy. 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:49.840 The US EU LNG deal will make the US the 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:54.159 world's largest exporter of gas. It was already the world's 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.560 largest producer. And that deal was announced the same week 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.320 that the Inner Governmental Panel on Climate Change and the 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:06.960 typically conservative International Energy Agency announced that we simply cannot 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:11.760 engage in any new fossil fuel development and keep warming 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:16.119 to even two degrees or less. It's a deal that 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:20.200 briet who was actually Trump's energy secretary before he ran 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:24.919 Sumper infrastructure couldn't even get done under the most oil 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:28.920 funded president the country has ever elected. But Biden, who 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.719 ran as the climate president, he made it happen. 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:40.520 There were new rigs even before he made that announcement, 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:44.680 but now it's just the horizon is filled with new 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:46.679 drilling rigs. It is booming again. 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:51.159 You might remember Sharon Wilson, an anti fracking activist in 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:55.000 Texas who we heard from in an earlier episode this season. 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:58.919 She's been out this spring with her thermal imaging camera 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:01.760 to see what the gas industry is up to in 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:06.400 Texas's Permian Basin. She says, without even looking for new rigs, 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:07.680 she capped CNM. 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:13.640 We saw at least sixty, oh my god, sixty new rigs, 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:19.600 I mean it. And every single site we looked at 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:24.800 with the camera was major pollution. Miguel drove and I 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:26.760 pointed the thing out the window. 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:31.920 Miguel is Migueliscoto, Wilson's colleague at the environmental nonprofit Earthworks. 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:40.560 The increase of production. The skyrocketing of production is immediately visible. 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:45.760 We would drive from Odessa to Big Spring, which is 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:51.879 about an hour long drive, and almost at every point 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:55.359 in the horizon while you're driving through this highway you 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:58.840 see new drilling rigs and. 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:02.439 I'd go, oh my god, it looked like a war zone. 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:08.920 There was black plumes of pollution coming from every site. 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:12.120 We are going the wrong way so fast that it's 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:16.879 mind boggling. We're seeing a whole bunch of new sites 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:22.680 go in which we don't need. But the thing that's 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:26.840 so horrifying is we've got all of these existing sites 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:33.919 emitting methane and VOCs like crazy. I mean, just huge 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.680 plumes that take up the whole sky. And then they're 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:38.600 just drilling more. 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:41.920 Yeah, I mean, does it seem to you like they're 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:44.160 going backwards on methane emissions too. 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:50.320 It's actually it has gotten worse. It's worse. You cannot 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:56.959 reduce methane by continuing to produce more methane. 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.359 Yet, once again the industry has convinced a lot of 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:05.639 talking heads that gas is a critical part of any 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:10.760 climate solution. Here's Simpra Infrastructure president Dan Briette making that 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:17.200 point on Bloomberg TV, CNN and CNBC's squawk Box. 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:20.600 And natural gas is a perfect complement to renewable technologies, 0:24:20.640 --> 0:24:22.960 not only here in the United States but all around 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:25.399 the world. The transition is more than just going again 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:28.400 from natural gas or fossil fuels to one hundred percent renewables. 0:24:28.600 --> 0:24:30.800 It's going to be adding new energy, and natural gas 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:31.520 is a part of that. 0:24:32.000 --> 0:24:35.240 We are still hurtling towards sort of a climate reckoning, 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:39.280 just based on a zeitgeist that we're in right now. 0:24:39.280 --> 0:24:41.320 But that's again where natural gas can have a very 0:24:41.359 --> 0:24:42.280 positive impact. 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:47.120 And here's Feyholder again, definitely a big effort to betray 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:49.119 gas as green. 0:24:49.280 --> 0:24:51.800 I think one of the quotes that we found from 0:24:52.320 --> 0:24:57.400 it was an executive vice president and EQT Corporation described 0:24:58.200 --> 0:25:02.040 exporting US LNG as the largest green initiative on the planet. 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:08.200 So to recap, in just under three months, the gas 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:11.359 industry has managed to put a stop to any regulation 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:15.600 that might have held back its continued growth, stopped even 0:25:15.640 --> 0:25:20.159 pretending to do anything about methane emissions, expanded production in 0:25:20.200 --> 0:25:25.159 a major way, all while simultaneously convincing the public and 0:25:25.359 --> 0:25:30.359 politicians that gas is green energy. And that only woke 0:25:30.440 --> 0:25:35.000 libs care about climate change anyway. It's breathtaking how well 0:25:35.040 --> 0:25:45.160 this campaign worked. Oh and gas prices, yeah, they're still high. 0:25:46.880 --> 0:25:51.359 That's it for this episode and this season. Make sure 0:25:51.440 --> 0:25:55.160 that you're subscribed so that you won't miss any bonus 0:25:55.200 --> 0:26:00.280 episodes or our next season. Drilled is an original article 0:26:00.359 --> 0:26:05.600 frequency production. Our producer is Jules Bradley. Our editor is 0:26:05.720 --> 0:26:11.400 Jude Joffy Block. Original music, sound design, mixing and mastering 0:26:11.480 --> 0:26:15.600 for this season from Peter Duff. The show is written 0:26:15.640 --> 0:26:19.840 and reported by me Amy Westervelt. Our artwork is drawn 0:26:19.880 --> 0:26:24.879 by Matt Fleming. Our factchecker is Woodan Yan. Our First 0:26:24.920 --> 0:26:28.800 Amendment attorney is James Wheaton of the First Amendment Project. 0:26:29.720 --> 0:26:32.240