US oil lobby launches ad campaign to promote oil as 'vital' to global security
US oil lobby launches ad campaign to promote oil as 'vital' to global security
Campaign pushes idea oil is ‘vital’ to global security and capitalizes on war in Gaza to escalate production, climate advocates say
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
The American oil lobby has launched an eight-figure media campaign this week promoting the idea that fossil fuels are “vital” to global energy security, alarming climate experts.
Launched Tuesday by the nation’s top fossil fuel interest group, the Lights on Energy campaign will work to “dismantle policy threats” to the sector, the American Petroleum Institute (API) CEO, Mike Sommers, told CNN in an interview this week.
A video ad posted on Tuesday, for instance, says “demand for energy is growing and so is the need for American oil and natural gas”, positioning the sector as essential to continued human flourishing – a form of discourse Roberts and his co-authors call an “appeal to wellbeing”.
In doing so, he employed a second discursive strategy known as “change is impossible”, which denies the ability for large-scale transformation, Roberts said, adding that the statement may be a “self fulfilling prophecy”, as fossil fuel companies still invest minimally in carbon-free energy.
The claim also ignores copious evidence that the world can begin to phase out fossil fuels, and must do so to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis, said Caleb Heeringa, campaign director of Gas Leaks, a nonprofit attempting to counter pro-gas messaging.
The campaign also states that increased gas usage is a “key reason” that US carbon emissions have fallen, employing a tactic Roberts calls “fossil fuel solutionism” by framing polluting energy as a climate solution.
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