The article in the url below indicates the extent of what we are up against in the fight to establish climate change as the preeminent threat facing humanity today:
"ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, and three oil-industry groups together spend $115 million a year on advocacy designed to 'obstruct' climate change policy, according to new estimates released by Influence Map, a British nonprofit research organization."
In particular:
"ExxonMobil's 'direct spending on climate obstruction,' according to [Influence Map's] report, may be $27 million a year. Shell's estimated spending is $22 million. The American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's U.S. trade group, may spend up to $65 million a year, and two smaller groups—the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association—are estimated to spend about $9 million together."
In contrast:
"Investor groups that push for strong climate policies spend less than $5 million a year on advocacy."
Although there is some indication that energy companies are beginning to shift their position on climate change (in particular, Exxon's support for a carbon tax), we still have not worked out how we are going to prevent these companies from exploiting all of their known reserves. For more detail on how the oil lobby seeks to obstruct progress on climate change policy, see the chart accompanying the article:
Have a good weekend
David
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Trying to Put a Price on Big Oil's 'Climate Obstruction' Efforts
By Eric Roston
April 6, 2016
Bloomberg Businessweek
