As Hurricane Ida wrought destruction throughout Louisiana and Mississippi, the companies that own the oil rigs and refineries in the storm’s path — and helped fuel this and the other natural disasters now upending life in every region of the world — said very little. While a highway collapsed, people died, homes flooded, power grids shattered, and more than 1 million homes and businesses lost power, the Twitter feeds of Exxon Mobil, Marathon Oil, Valero, Phillips 66, Chevron, and Shell remained notably inactive.
That silence contrasts with the steady patter of positive PR the big oil and gas companies usually spout about their roles as stewards of the environment. Ida — whose power stemmed from the unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, turning it into the “poster child” for climate change-driven disasters — made Big Oil’s usual pledges to help us cope with the climate crisis ring impossibly hollow.
Such greenwashing — or perhaps false advertising — is par for the course for big energy companies, according to Karen Sokol, a professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
“They frame themselves not as a major source of the problem, but instead a key part of the solution.”
Read the full story: https://interc.pt/3zQ3g6G
Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
That silence contrasts with the steady patter of positive PR the big oil and gas companies usually spout about their roles as stewards of the environment. Ida — whose power stemmed from the unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, turning it into the “poster child” for climate change-driven disasters — made Big Oil’s usual pledges to help us cope with the climate crisis ring impossibly hollow.
Such greenwashing — or perhaps false advertising — is par for the course for big energy companies, according to Karen Sokol, a professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
“They frame themselves not as a major source of the problem, but instead a key part of the solution.”
Read the full story: https://interc.pt/3zQ3g6G
Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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