Is Big Oil being silenced in Canada? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Message From the Editor

Silhouettes of people walking through doors under the letters ARC

It started with smoke — tobacco smoke, that is, but by borrowing the tobacco industry’s PR playbook, the fossil fuel industry is ensuring those same techniques keep the planet shrouded in a different kind of smoke these days.

Sharon Kelly reports on the international campaign that oil and gas producers, along with utilities, are using to keep buildings hooked on natural gas and to fight electrification. A new InfluenceMap report summarizes this lobbying war that, in more than two dozen U.S. states, takes away local governments’ power to phase out fossil fuel appliances like gas stoves or to limit new buildings’ connections to gas pipelines. This campaign is played out often at the local and state levels, with industry-funded efforts to preempt local gas “bans” even in locations where no such laws are a popular policy consideration, such as areas of the South.

The report also examined the lobbying situation in the EU and Australia, and concluded that utilities and fossil fuel producers across the three continents are “collaborating on a global scale” and “relying on a common fossil fuel playbook” to fight against building electrification efforts. That playbook has three basic moves. Read the full story to learn more.

While fossil fuel companies and their allies in the U.S., EU, and Australia are using misleading narratives about gas to fight electrification, Canada has seen a different scenario play out recently thanks to a groundbreaking anti-greenwashing and consumer protection law, known as Bill C-59, adopted in June 2024.

The bill says that companies found deliberately misleading the public with false environmental claims could be fined up to $10 million. After its passing, Canadian oil companies dropped mentions of carbon capture and storage (CCS) from their websites, for instance.

But the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Atlas Network think tank based in Ottawa, is calling to repeal this law, arguing in a paper filled with its own inaccurate and misleading statements that Big Oil is somehow silenced. Really? Read the full story.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected]. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter.

Thanks,

Brendan DeMelle

Executive Director

P.S. Readers like you power our journalism dedicated to climate accountability. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work? Thanks so much for your support.

Credit: RawPixel

Atlas Network-Affiliated Think Tank Wants Canada’s Greenwashing Law Repealed

— By Taylor Noakes (5 min. read) —

Fossil fuel advocates argue Big Oil is being silenced by the consumer protection law.

The Fossil Fuel Industry Wants to Keep New Buildings Dependent on Gas

— By Sharon Kelly (6 min. read) —

A new report shows how a strategic worldwide campaign to delay building electrification policies risks public health and climate goals.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright speaking via video link, while a male moderator sits in front of the screen in white chairs

Pathways Carbon Capture Project Is Not Viable, Expert Warns

— By Taylor Noakes (6 min. read) —

New report says CCS proposal is a subsidy-dependent ‘financial risk’ with ‘limited revenue potential.’

Carrboro, N.C., Mayor Barbara Foushee speaks at a Dec. 4 press conference announcing the Town Council’s lawsuit against Duke Energy for its alleged role in covering up the dangers of climate change.

Kemi Badenoch Claims There Was ‘No Plan’ for Net Zero. So Why Did She Champion it in Government?

— By Adam Barnett (9 min. read) —

The Conservative Party leader claims she was always a net zero sceptic, but in government she hailed net zero plans as “crucial” for a “cleaner greener future”.

Photo of an oil spill at a CNRL facility reported in August 2020.

Tory Peer to Lead Climate Science Denial Group

— By Adam Barnett (5 min) —

Craig Mackinlay has taken over as the director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which has claimed that carbon dioxide has been “mercilessly demonised”.

The words 'climate denier spotlight' in wide appear against a transitional gray background with three smokestacks and two intersecting yellow spotlights highlight a bag of gold.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) describes itself as the largest manufacturing association in the United States and claims to represent “small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states” by working “on the front lines of a wide range of policy battles, from immigration reform and labor relations, to energy and the environment, to trade policy and taxes.” NAM has routinely opposed the Clean Air Act, regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Power Plan, stricter ozone standards, and a wide range of other environmental regulations that it argues would negatively impact industry. In 2017 it quietly launched the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project (MAP) to push back against, among other things, climate-change-related lawsuits affecting the manufacturing industry. It has received funding from oil, gas, and utilities trade groups as well as chemical companies.

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database, Ad & PR Database, and Koch Network Database.