Oil & Gas Lobby Group Profiles
American Petroleum Institute
The American Petroleum Institute is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and gas industry, representing some 600 members.
Key Personnel
CEO Mike Sommers: In 2019, the American Petroleum Institute’s 501(c)6 trade group reported spending $2,590,284 in compensation to CEO Michael Sommers. An additional $1,292,203 was also reported from organizations related to the 501(c)6 non-profit as additional compensation to Sommers. (At least $3.8 million total).
Amanda Eversole, Executive Vice President & Chief Advocacy Officer
Frank Macchiarola, Senior Vice President, Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs.
Rolf Hanson, Vice President, State Government Relations.
Connected Entities
API PAC - federal PAC.
Campaigns & Lobbying
Lobbying Spending:
2019: $6,610,000
2020: $5,350,000
2021: $4,790,000
2022: $4,380,000
Issue Campaigns: API spends millions on public campaigns annually
API lobbied against cap and trade legislation, and for increased deregulation of the industry.
API challenged the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gas emissions endangered public health, and thus were subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act.
Greenwashing Campaigns:
API has pushed misinformation about the safety of fracking, and launched a campaign to promote off-shore drilling.
In 2020, API launched its national ‘Energy for Progress’ TV and digital campaign to highlight “the industry's leadership in reducing emissions to record low levels and supporting economic and environmental progress in local communities.” The Energy for Progress website features a section on “environmental protection” where it claims natural gas has been a key reason “U.S. carbon dioxide emissions have reached their lowest levels in a generation.”
In September 2019, API released several videos as part of their “Together, We’re On It” campaign touting the industry’s work on emissions reduction.
Pro-Oil Campaigns:
The organization strongly advocated for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and has funded several seemingly ‘grassroots’ campaigns to defeat local climate action.
In September 2019, API released several videos as part of their “Together, We’re On It” campaign touting the industry’s work on emissions reduction.
API also provided startup funding for IPAA’s $2 million annual Energy In Depth campaign that peddles climate misinformation and, according to the Huffington Post, “regularly attacks scientists.”
Controversies
In January 2021, Total was the first major petroleum company to cut membership ties with the API.
The company cited its commitment to the Paris Agreement, and said that it could not reconcile differences with the group over carbon pricing, subsidies for electric vehicles and the regulation of methane emissions.
Total also criticized API’s financial support for candidates who opposed the U.S.’s participation in the Paris agreement, and the group’s membership of the Transportation Fairness Alliance, which opposes subsidies for EVs.
API has been named in several lawsuits alleging they mislead the public about fossil fuels’ impact on climate change:
In June 2020, the Attorney General of Minnesota announced a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, API, and Koch Industries for misleading consumers for decades about the effects of climate change and their direct contributions to the crisis.
In September 2020, the Attorney General of Delaware announced a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Chevron, API and BP for participating in a “campaign of deception” on climate change.
In September 2020, the City of Hoboken, NJ, also filed suit against ExxonMobil, API and other oil and gas companies.
API failed to respond to concerns raised by Federal Railroad Administration in a letter sent to the company in 2013.
API has publicly pushed dubious information on climate change as early as 1980:
API’s “Two Energy Futures: A National Choice for the 80s” booklet acknowledged that carbon dioxide was a “pollutant,” but cast doubt on the role of CO2 in global warming by misrepresenting prominent scientific findings.
The booklet went on to promote the expansion of fossil fuels, citing a study funded by the fossil fuel industry to claim that expanding coal would have “no significant damage to the environment.”
API was named as a potential funder of the multi-million dollar “uncertainty” campaign detailed in the 1998 Global Climate Science Communications Plan to discredit climate science.
API actively sought to discredit the science behind the Kyoto Protocol, funding think-tank studies challenging the agreement.
American Gas Association
The American Gas Association, founded in 1918, is a 501(c)(6) group that claims to represent more than 200 energy companies in the natural gas sector across the U.S.
Key Personnel
President & CEO Karen A. Harbert.
According to AGA’s form 990, President & CEO Karen Harbert made $892,994 from the (c)(6) organization and an additional $33,774 from other related organizations in 2019.
George Lowe, Vice President, Governmental Affairs and Public Policy
Connected Entities
American Gas Association PAC (GASPAC) - federal PAC.
American Gas Association Foundation - 501(c)(3) non-profit organization serving as “an independent source of information research and programs on energy and environmental issues that affect public policy, with a particular emphasis on natural gas.”
Your Energy America (YEA) - front group used to promote natural gas pipelines, particularly the Atlantic Pipeline.
Campaigns & Lobbying
Lobbying Spending:
Year
Lobbying Spending Amount
2019: $1,460,000
2020: $1,270,000
2021: $1,370,000
2022: $960,000
Issue Campaigns:
The AGA lobbies for methane-friendly regulations, including the direct use of gas in buildings, while opposing efforts to reduce emissions through electrifying buildings and transportation.
Grassroots front groups:
In 2017, AGA launched a front group called “Your Energy America.” The campaign promoted natural gas use and sought to undermine environmental campaigns against new pipelines. Your Energy America primarily focussed on pipeline development along the Eastern United States, including Virginia, New Jersey and New England.
In 2017, Washington Post reported that Dominion Energy and the American Gas Association funded both Your Energy Virginia and EnergySure grassroots “campaign to elect a pipeline” in support of the Atlantic Coast proposed natural gas pipeline.
Greenwashing campaigns:
AGA meeting notes from March 2018, obtained by watchdog group Climate Investigations Center (CIC), describe the trade association’s move to promote renewable natural gas to environmental advocates who are opposed to gas expansion in order to “mitigate the opposition’s fervor.”
AGA claims the direct use of gas in homes is more efficient compared to electricity use - a claim that has been disputed by energy policy experts, including those at the Rocky Mountain Institute.
Controversies
The American Gas Association is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
AGA opposed President Trump’s executive order calling for U.S. pipelines to be made with U.S.-produced steel.
San Antonio’s city-owned energy utility CPS Energy pays over $200,000 in annual membership dues to AGA.
CPS Energy’s involvement in the city’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, which set the goal of reducing citywide greenhouse gas emissions by 41% by 2030 and 71% by 2040, raised concerns with local residents and environmental activists.
CPS provided around $778,000 to underwrite the report, and the utility reportedly pushed to remove language in the plan that would have forced them to abandon fossil fuels by 2050.
Independent Petroleum Association of America
The Independent Petroleum Association of America is a 501 (c)(6) non-profit organization that has “represented independent oil and natural gas producers for 90 years.”
Key Personnel
President & CEO Jeff Eshelman.
IPPA’s 2019 form 990 shows that the former President and CEO, Barrett Russell earned $664,700 from the 501 (c)(6) group and an additional $84,880 from related groups.
Vice President of Government Relations & Political Affairs, Ryan Ullman
Vice President of Government Relations, Mallori Miller
Connected Entities
Independent Petroleum Association of America, Wildcatters Fund PAC - federal PAC.
Energy in Depth - front group.
IPAA National Election Center - voter engagement effort.
Campaigns & Lobbying
Lobbying Spending:
2019: $1,259,399
2020: $831,623
2021: $722,534
2022: $740,000
IPAA reported increased lobbying activity under President Trump, reflecting “an uptick of advocacy on the issues of steel and oil-field tubular goods tariffs and quotas, as well as tax and environmental issues.”
IPAA lobbied to relax bank lending guidelines due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Issue Campaigns:
IPAA runs Energy In Depth, a campaign that spews climate denial and attacks climate scientists and advocates. In a 2019 report presented to its board of directors, IPAA described EID as “the industry’s lead research and rapid response platform on issues relating to onshore oil and natural gas production, and in particular the development of natural gas from shale.”
In 2012, IPAA produced the documentary “TruthLand” in response to Gasland documentaries highlighting the dangers of hydraulic fracking.
Controversies
In March 2020, Equinor announced its separation from IPAA over climate policy. Equinor cited the IPAA’s support for the EPA’s roll-back of U.S. federal methane regulations, which the company opposes.
IPAA was named as a potential funder of the multi-million dollar “uncertainty” campaign detailed in the 1998 Global Climate Science Communications Plan to discredit climate science.
A 1999 fact sheet released by IPAA sought to shift the blame for greenhouse gas emissions to insects, claiming “the largest source of greenhouse gas may be termites, whose digestive activities are responsible for 10 times more production of CO2 than burning fossil fuels.”
The 1999 fact sheet also pushed back on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: “since human-related CO2 is only a small portion of total atmospheric CO2, measures taken to limit it will have little or no measurable effect on overall emissions into the atmosphere.”
IPAA’s fact sheet also claimed there was “still no evidence that CO2 emissions are warming the earth’s atmosphere. And we have no proof that man’s impact makes a difference at all.”
Updated versions of the fact sheet, in 2007 and again in 2008, continued to cast doubt on established climate science:
Quote: “No climate change policy action should discard the question of science. Too often, recent arguments for action discard the uncertainties of today’s understanding of global climate science. Global climate science is an emerging field, one that changes as the tools to model it improve.”
IPAA runs a news site, Energy In Depth, that spews climate denial and attacks climate scientists and advocates.
In a 2019 report presented to its board of directors, IPAA described the website as “the industry’s lead research and rapid response platform on issues relating to onshore oil and natural gas production, and in particular the development of natural gas from shale.”
EID has published a “debunk” of reporting that Exxon misled the public on the dangers of climate change. The report attacks the research of Harvard scholars Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran, calling their published study “incomplete” and “activist.” EID also points to Exxon Mobil-funded research to undermine the Havard scholars’ studies.
EID’s climate campaign was launched with the specific goal of undermining calls to keep natural gas and oil in the ground.
EID described its health campaign’s aim as publishing “original research highlighting the contributions of natural gas to cleaner air, as well as a rapid response program to counter claims that exploration and production is a detriment to better public health.”
Western Energy Alliance
The Western Energy Alliance, previously the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, was founded in 1974 as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit based in Denver, Colorado. Today the trade group represents over 300 oil and gas companies.
Key Personnel
President, Kathleen Sgamma
VP of Public Affairs, Aaron Johnson
Connected Entities
Western Energy Alliance PAC - federal PAC.
Western Wire - pseudo news site established in 2017 with the goal of being “the go-to source for news, commentary and analysis on pro-growth, pro-development policies across the West.”
Source Rock Blog - WEA President Kathleen Sgamma seems to be the sole contributor to the organization’s blog, which dates back to February 2020.
Western Energy Alliance Legal Defense Fund - the group’s legal arm.
Campaigns & Lobbying
Lobbying Spending:
Issue Campaigns:
WEA runs the newsite “WesternWire.Net” that provides analysis and commentary on climate, energy and environmental topics.
WEA has launched several legal challenges to environmental efforts - including fighting against methane regulation, BLM hydraulic fracturing and waste prevention rules, and against Sage Grouse protections.
Controversies
In 2020, British Petroleum left the Western Energy Alliance over disagreements on climate change. BP also cited WEA’s opposition to reducing methane pollution.
At a 2014 WEA event, industry PR consultant Richard Berman urged oil and gas executives to “exploit emotions like fear, greed and anger” to turn the public against environmental groups.
In 2019, WEA and Western Wire made headlines when PR strategists from oil and gas industry favorite FTI Consulting posed as journalists in an attempt to interview an EarthRights International lawyer. The lawyer was representing Colorado communities suing Exxon for climate change-related damages, and the consultants represented Exxon.
A February 2021 analysis by Accountable.US found upwards of 100 members have left WEA since 2017, reducing the group’s membership by around half since 2012 levels.
The American Energy Alliance/Institute for Energy Research
American Energy Alliance (AEA) is a 501(c)(4) not-for-profit organization. The group was formed in May 2008 as the advocacy arm of the Institute for Energy Research (IER).
Key Personnel
President, Tom Pyle
Senior Vice President of Policy, Dan Kish
Director of Policy and Federal Affairs, Kenny Stein
Connected Entities
IER grew from the Institute For Humane Studies Of Texas, which was originally founded by Charles Koch in 1989. IER has taken contributions from Exxon Mobil, the Charles G Koch Charitable Foundation, and several Koch-related organizations.
Masterresource.org - IER manages this “free-market energy blog” that features contributions from known climate deniers including Alex Epstein.
Energy Townhall - AEA manages the Energy Townhall blog.
Campaigns & Lobbying
Lobbying: Neither IER or AEA have reported federal lobbying expenses, according to OpenSecrets.
Issue Campaigns:
AEA backed a push across state legislatures to bar funding for work on the Clean Power Plan - the group ran a “Just Say No” campaign urging states to refuse to comply with the Clean Power Plan.
IER supported and promoted “Spanish” and “Danish” studies critical of clean energy jobs, both of which have been debunked. As of 2015, IER staff were using the debunked studies to lobby state legislators to repeal renewable portfolio standards. One such effort succeeded in freezing Ohio’s clean energy law.
In 2015, AEA launched SmartPowerPlan.org, which it described as “a hub for the latest information on how states and the public are fighting back against the EPA’s so-called Clean Power Plan.”
In 2018, IER launched its Big Green, Inc. campaign to discredit environmental groups and the push for climate action.
In 2020, AEA sent a letter to President Trump supporting the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule which would scrap federal fuel economy mandates under the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program.
In 2020, AEA launched a new campaign against the electric vehicle (EV) tax credit. In a series of digital ads, the campaign urged Senators to “block proposed amendments to the American Energy Innovation Act that would expand the unnecessary, inefficient, costly and unfair electric vehicle (EV) tax credit.”
Campaign Cash: IER and AEA staff have contributed at least $10,333 to federal candidates (earliest record is 2008, most recent record is 2020.)
In the 2020 campaign cycle, Director of Policy and Federal Affairs Kenneth Stein donated $1,000 to Chip Roy’s (TX-21) Congressional bid.
AEA’s last recorded electoral independent expenditure was $1.3M against Obama in 2012. As a dark money group, other forms of political advertising, such as $400K that was spent targeting Mark Udall in 2014 can go under the radar unless it receives news coverage.
Controversies
Tom Pyle, a former Koch lobbyist, is the President of both American Energy Alliance and the Institute for Energy Research. In 2008, Pyle lobbied for the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association.
As the head of Trump’s energy transition team, Pyle prepared memo listing policy changes, including ending the Clean Power Plan, withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and lifting coal lease moratorium.
AEA made headlines in 2014 for comparing EPA regulations to CIA torture tactics.
AEA peddled climate misinformation. In a 2016 press release, the group claimed that “carbon dioxide is not dirty, and is not poisonous to humans in concentrations we observe in the atmosphere. In fact, carbon dioxide is the natural product of combustion–whether that combustion occurs within our cells (which is why humans exhale carbon dioxide), or whether carbon dioxide results from the combustion of natural gas. Carbon dioxide is essential to life on Earth because vegetation requires carbon dioxide to survive and thrive.”
AEA reported to the IRS that it did not engage in political activity, despite running campaign ads against Obama’s energy policy.
IER manages a blog at Masterresource.org which promotes fringe anti-renewable-energy voices, including a woman who sprung to Trump’s defense to attempt to justify Trump’s claim that windmills cause cancer.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business organization, and the largest lobbying organization in the U.S.
Key Personnel
CEO and President, Suzanne Clark
Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer, Neil Bradley
Senior Vice President of Policy, Martin Durbin
Connected Entities
U.S. Chamber of Commerce PAC - political action committee.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation - 501(c)(3) foundation.
Center for International Private Enterprise - non-profit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Campaigns & Lobbying
Lobbying Spending:
2019: $77.25 million
2020: $81.91 million
2021: $66.39 million
2022: $81,030,000
Lobbying Issues:
The Chamber has been credited with killing the Clean Power Plan and influencing President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord.
The Chamber’s Board of Directors includes executives from coal companies Alliance Resource Partners LP and Peabody Energy; oil and gas drillers Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips and Shell Oil Co.; and pipeline builders Sempra Energy and Phillips 66.
Issue Campaigns:
The Chamber runs the Global Energy Institute, formerly the Institute for 21st Century Energy, which opposes regulations on coal, advocates for eliminating renewable energy subsidies, and has challenged numerous EPA regulations, including ozone standards and the Clean Power Plan:
In 2014, the Chamber launched its “Keystone XL Pipeline Lost Opportunity Tour” along the Keystone XL pipeline’s proposed route.
In 2013, the Chamber worked alongside API to push back against opposition to the Keystone XL. The Hill reported that the Chamber sought to make the case that scrapping Keystone would amount to succumbing to “fringe groups.”
In 2012, the Chamber launched its “Shale Works for US” campaign in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York to spur support for shale energy resources.
Controversies
Numerous large companies have left the Chamber since 2009 over the organization’s climate actions:
In 2009, Nike withdrew from the Chamber’s Board of Directors following the Chamber’s actions on climate and energy policy. That same year, Apple withdrew from the Chamber altogether due to the group’s opposition to the EPA’s efforts to curb emissions under the Clean Air Act.
In 2008 and 2009, numerous energy and utility companies also withdrew their membership from the Chamber over climate change. Exelon Corp., Pacific Gas & Electric Co., PNM Resources Inc. and PSE&G all departed from the group over disagreements on climate legislation.
At least 13 of the world’s largest companies (Costco, eBay, Hewlett-Packard, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft Hainz, Mars, Mattel, Mondelez, Nestle, Starbucks, Unilever and Walgreens Boots Alliance) have quit the Chamber due to its stance on climate policy.
In 2018, Shell criticized the Chamber’s climate change policy, leading the organization to revise its website to acknowledge that humans contribute to climate change and that “inaction is simply not an option.”
The Chamber opposed the EPA’s decision that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health, welfare, and the environment.
Lawyers for the Chamber requested an immediate stay of the final Clean Power Plan, which the Supreme Court granted in 2016. In 2014, the Chamber solicited state attorneys general to urge the D.C. Circuit Court to “set aside” the final version of this rule, several months before the EPA had put forth its initial proposal.
The Chamber supported the Trump administration's weakened heat-trapping emissions limits for the power sector and its rollback of environmental review rules for interstate oil and gas pipelines and other major projects.
The Chamber has a long history of peddling climate denial and misinformation:
In 2001, William Kovacs — then the Chamber’s Vice President of Environmental Policy — claimed that there was “no link between greenhouse gases and human activity.”
In a 2008 memo to the Chamber’s Board of Directors, chamber President Thomas J. Donohue claimed that “scientific inquiry” into global warming “should continue… given the recent reports indicating a cooling trend.”
The National Chamber Foundation named books by climate change deniers among its top ten recommended books of 2008 and 2009.
In 2009, the Chamber claimed to Congress that “warming of even 3 [degrees] C in the next 100 years would, on balance, be beneficial to humans.”
In 2009, the Chamber called for an official trial on the scientific evidence for man-made climate change. The Chamber said it would be “the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century.” The EPA called the hearing a “waste of time” and described the threatened lawsuit by the Chamber as “frivolous.”
The Empowerment Alliance
The Empowerment Alliance (TEA) was founded as a 501c4 in 2019 with an aim to combat the Green New Deal and promote natural gas. Jim Nathanson serves as the group’s Executive Director. The organization’s donors are anonymous.
Key Personnel
Executive Director, James ‘Jim’ Nathanson
Spokesperson, Terry Holt
Spokesperson, Ian Prior
Connected Entities
Blue Energy Nation - ‘grassroots’ campaign pushing energy independence.
HDMK - Spokesperson Terry Holt’s PR and communications firm. The group reportedly runs communications for TEA.
Campaigns & Lobbying
Lobbying Spending: TEA has reported no lobbying activity as of April 2022.
Issue Campaigns:
TEA, according to reports, funded advertising and research to advocate the use of natural gas as a cleaner alternative to coal and to fight against the Green New Deal.
TEA’s website claims that “burning natural gas in the place of other fossil fuels emits fewer harmful pollutants, and an increased reliance on natural gas can potentially reduce the emission of many of these most harmful pollutants. Natural gas can help to mitigate some of these environmental issues, including greenhouse gas emissions, pollution from transportation, industrial and electric generation emission, as well as smog and acid rain.”
In a press release, TEA’s Executive Director Jim Nathanson argued “there is simply not enough solar and wind infrastructure to fuel our growing economy or provide American businesses and consumers with affordable energy.”
In 2019, TEA launched with a video ad outlining their mission as “to secure energy independence, economic prosperity, and national security.”
In 2020, as part of their Blue Energy Nation campaign, TEA launched a video ad and sought signatures for its “Declaration of Energy Independence.” The Declaration, as of May 2021, has been signed by 1,061 individuals - including 15 Governors, 9 U.S. Senators, 54 Members of Congress, and 14 Attorneys General.
Campaign Cash: TEA reported no campaign contributions in the 2019-2020 cycle.
Controversies
TEA credited the natural gas industry for emissions reductions that have resulted in the U.S. seeing “its best air quality in the last half century or longer.”
In a press release, TEA argued natural gas was “clean energy” and “the fiscally-sound, reliable, and environmentally responsible bridge to our energy future.”
In a press release criticizing President Biden’s executive actions to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and to revoke permitting for the Keystone XL pipeline, TEA credited the shale gas revolution for making America’s air “the cleanest air in nearly fifty years.”