Message From the Editor

Last week, the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, led by Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Katie Porter (D-CA), sent a letter to FTI Consulting requesting documents related to the firm’s work on behalf of fossil fuel companies.

The Committee had requested these documents two months before and had received nothing from FTI. So in its letter last week, it warned, “Unless FTI Consulting produces all responsive documents by 5:00 PM on August 24, 2022, the Committee will be forced to consider all of its options for obtaining this information, including, but not limited to authorizing and issuing a subpoena.”

That deadline came and went, and a spokesperson for the Committee confirmed yesterday that “the Committee has not yet gotten an adequate response from FTI,” as Nick Cunningham reported for us today.

FTI Consulting has a long track record of trying to control public narratives around fossil fuels for its clients in an effort to head off climate action. Nick details this history, from FTI’s “most high-profile climate denial project” Energy In Depth — a pro-fracking constellation of websites that spreads industry talking points — to a previously unreported 2012 presentation that touts the firm’s experience at “generating pro-gas news.”

“FTI remains a major, major contractor to the fossil fuel industry. They run front groups, fake news channels, they pose as reporters, they write reports about activists,” Kert Davies, founder and director of Climate Investigations Center, told DeSmog.

Despite the missed deadline, the Committee has yet to issue a subpoena and what will happen next is unclear. So, as another spokesperson for the Committee told us, “stay tuned.”

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: editor@desmog.com. Our UK team has been charting the fossil fuel ties of potential successors to Boris Johnson. Stay in the loop with our UK newsletter!

Thanks,

Brendan DeMelle



Executive Director



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Image credit: Screenshot from FTI's 2015 presentation

House Committee Poised for Potential Subpoena of PR Firm for Climate Disinformation

— By Nick Cunningham (7 min. read) —

A powerful Washington, D.C., consulting and PR firm, with a long history of waging influence campaigns for fossil fuel corporations, is under scrutiny by a congressional committee as part of a broader investigation into the decades-long efforts by the oil industry and its allies to block action on the climate crisis.

FTI Consulting, a billion-dollar firm that has a global presence, is not a household name. But it has been instrumental in an array of oil industry campaigns meant to sow doubt about climate change, attack climate scientists, and play up the benefits of fossil fuels.  

Thanks to Manchin, IRA’s Methane Fee on Big Oil Is Riddled With Massive Holes

— By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams (3 min. read) —

The newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act contains the world’s first-ever fee on methane, a powerful greenhouse gas believed to be responsible for roughly 30 percent of global temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution.

But analysts and climate advocates fear that the fee, which is aimed at incentivizing U.S. fossil fuel companies to stop deliberately spewing the gas into the atmosphere, will have a muted impact on rapidly rising methane emissions given that 60 percent of the oil and gas industry is exempt from the penalty.

TalkTV’s Climate Expert Accused UN of Using ‘Nazi Methods’ to Back Green Action

— By Adam Barnett (4 min. read) —

A climate pundit favoured by TalkTV has previously accused the United Nations and green campaigners of using the “methods of the Nazis” to impose a “Marxist dystopia”.

Brian Catt, a business consultant with a bachelor’s degree in physics, appeared at least three times this month on the Rupert Murdoch-owned channel, where he was described as an expert on climate science.

Children Living Close to Fracking Sites Have Two to Three Times Higher Risk of Leukemia

— By Nick Cunningham (4 min. read) —

Children living close to fracking sites in Pennsylvania are two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with leukemia, and contamination of drinking water is suspected as an avenue of exposure, according to a new study.

“Unconventional oil and gas development can both use and release chemicals that have been linked to cancer, so the potential for children living near UOG to be exposed to these chemical carcinogens is a major public health concern,” the study’s senior author, Nicole Deziel, associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, said in a statement.

Activists Arrested While Protesting ‘Dirty Pipeline Deal’ Outside Schumer’s Office

— By Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams (3 min. read) —

Climate campaigners were arrested on Thursday after demonstrating outside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) Manhattan office, where they expressed opposition to the fossil fuel-friendly permitting reforms the New York Democrat agreed to bring to the floor to secure Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) support for the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Sen. Schumer is sacrificing frontline communities and our clean energy future, all to placate a coal baron,” Food & Water Watch senior New York organizer Laura Shindell, one of 10 activists taken into custody, said in a statement.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: FTI Consulting

FTI Consulting describes itself as “an independent global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes: financial, legal, operational, political & regulatory, reputational and transactional.” FTI offers services for a wide range of industries. For example, its energy industry services offer “advisory services that address the strategic, financial, reputational, regulatory and legal needs of energy and utility clients involved in the production of crude oil, natural gas, refined products, chemicals, coal, electric power, emerging technologies and renewable energy” as well as “strategic communications services across all disciplines.”

Read its full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.