Our unenviable predicament with respect to our planet’s climate system is the direct consequence of scores of critical decisions taken by government and industry. Can we expect to soon learn more about how these key actors interact?
In an important 2021 article, Benjamin Franta, then a Stanford University-based researcher, established that the disinformation campaign launched by the US oil industry actually commenced earlier than had to that point been understood even by climate historians — indeed, as early as 1980.1Benjamin Franta (2021) Early oil industry disinformation on global warming, Environmental Politics, 30:4, 663-668, DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2020.1863703
In particular, Franta called attention to the American Petroleum Institute’s publication of a policy booklet that sought to convey, as Franta put it, “the false impression that scientists did not view global warming from fossil fuels as a significant threat,” and further, “that expanded fossil fuel use — specifically expanded coal and synthetic fuel production — would be safe.”2Id.
And yet, as Franta also pointed out,3Id. just the year before API member Exxon had produced “an internal assessment of global warming, which was known” to an API task force “and which predicted myriad climatic effects by the mid-21st century including rising sea levels, ice-free Arctic summers, less habitable tropics, and desertification and drought in the US Southwest unless over 80% of recoverable fossil fuels were left in the ground, coal and shale oil were never extensively used, and non-fossil energy systems were to begin replacing fossil fuels significantly by the 1990s.”
Readers of this column may be familiar with this basic storyline about the US fossil fuel industry – one characterized by internal industry knowledge of the risks their products impose on humanity and the natural world, coupled with external propaganda and manipulation.
But did you know the fossil industry was obliged to report to EPA the truth
about the risk it imposes on human health and the environment?
But did you know that the industry also has been obliged since 1977 to report to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the truth about the risk its products impose on health and the environment? Indeed, Section 8(e) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) could hardly be more clear:
Any person who manufactures, processes, or distributes in commerce a chemical substance or mixture and who obtains information which reasonably supports the conclusion that such substance or mixture presents a substantial risk of injury to health or the environment shall immediately inform the Administrator of such information unless such person has actual knowledge that the Administrator has been adequately informed of such information.
15 USC 2607(e).
The passage begs an interesting question. It is not merely, “What did Exxon et. al. know, and when did they know it?” Neither is it, “What did the government – including EPA – know, and when did EPA know it?” Instead (or, in addition) the critical question in light of the operative legal mandate is this: “What did Exxon et. al. tell EPA about the substantial risk to health or the environment, and when did they tell it?”
To uncover that critical bit on history, on May 3, 2024, two colleagues and I submitted a Freedom on Information Request on behalf of Dr. James E. Hansen, Dr. Donn J. Viviani, and CPR Initiative. The FOIA demands:
- All information submitted pursuant to TSCA, § 8(e) that reasonably supports the conclusion that the manufacture, processing, distribution in commerce, use, or disposal of fossil fuels presents a substantial risk of injury to health or the environment.
- All information as reasonably supports the same conclusion about any greenhouse gas or other pollutant emitted during the manufacture, processing, refinement, distribution in commerce, use, or disposal of fossil fuels.
See below for the full FOIA.
The Agency by law must respond without unreasonable delay. Accordingly, we should have occasion to return here soon to explain whether the US fossil fuel industry complied with its mandate to tell EPA the truth about the risks to our nation, and more, arising from the industry’s production of oil, gas, and coal.
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- 1Benjamin Franta (2021) Early oil industry disinformation on global warming, Environmental Politics, 30:4, 663-668, DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2020.1863703
- 2Id.
- 3Id.