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</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2022/09/20/petroleum-papers-geoff-dembicki-oil-sands-canada-exxon-imperial-syncrude-climate-denial/">https://www.desmog.com/2022/09/20/petroleum-papers-geoff-dembicki-oil-sands-canada-exxon-imperial-syncrude-climate-denial/</a>
</font><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Imperial Oil might not be a household name in the United States, but the company, which is mostly owned by ExxonMobil, is a big name in Canada. There, it’s one of the major players in Canada’s oil sands — the name for the vast fields containing a tarry mixture of sand, water, and the thick, heavy oil called bitumen — that were first mined in 1967. These oil sands, sometimes called “tar sands,” which lie in northern Alberta, are one of the largest oil reserves in the world.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the oil that comes from them is distinctive in several ways. Oil sands’ unique texture means it takes more money and energy to refine than traditional crude. In addition, its oil is some of the most carbon-heavy in the world, with up to 20 percent higher emissions, and that has drawn the attention of climate advocates. Because of these factors, as<b> Geoff Dembicki </b>explains in his new book <span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://greystonebooks.com/products/the-petroleum-papers" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;"><b>The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change</b></a></span> (Greystone Books, September 20),<b> oil sands producers and refiners, like Imperial Oil or <a href="https://www.desmog.com/koch-industries-inc/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">Koch Industries</a>, are particularly vulnerable to any efforts to mitigate climate change that would increase the already higher costs of extracting and refining bitumen.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Dembicki’s book illuminates for the first time how these industry players profited from Canada’s oil sands and then spun those profits into international networks of climate denial that would help extend the oil sands’ lifetime.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> “Bitumen from Alberta bankrolled the assault on truth led by companies such as Koch Industries and Exxon,” he writes. Dembicki drew heavily on </span><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2019/12/03/imperial-oil-archives-climate-denial-energy-research/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">the Imperial Oil Files</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> we published in 2019, relying on internal company documents that demonstrated not only that Imperial Oil knew about climate change by the late 1970s but also that it studied climate solutions — so that it could try to shut them down. As he explains in the book, “Canada could slow down climate change, or it could tap one of the world’s largest oil reserves — but it couldn’t do both.” It chose the oil sands. </span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those oil sands–fueled efforts to spread climate denial and delay action aren’t just a thing of the past. As Dembicki demonstrates, “the machinery of Big Oil’s climate crisis denial” continues its work influencing U.S. and Canadian politics even today.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We spoke with Dembicki ahead of the release of <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Petroleum Papers</span>. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lindsey J. Smith</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I want to start with a really simple question: Why write about the oil sands?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Geoff Dembicki</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For me, it’s kind of personal because I was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. That’s only a few hours’ drive south of the oil sands and, literally, my childhood home was just down the road from a huge oil refinery, and friends and family worked in the oil and gas industry. As I got older, I just wanted to have a better understanding of the industry. And then, of course, once I learned about the massive climate impacts it was creating, and how some of the companies involved with that industry had covered up those impacts and lied to the public that just got me more and more curious.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SMITH</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Do you think that other people, even people who are informed about climate change, are aware of the oil sands and of their climate impact?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DEMBICKI</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There is a bit of awareness of that, especially in Canada. But part of the reason I wanted to do this book was to really educate readers in the U.S., and in Canada, and all over the world, just about the massive climate impacts that this gigantic oil industry has created</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. I think when a lot of Americans imagine foreign oil, they’re thinking about like Saudi Arabia, or something, but a huge part of the oil that Americans use every day, and that Canada sends to the U.S., comes directly from the oil sands. And it’s not just like the physical properties of oil that affect what’s happening with climate change. As I explain in the book, there’s a long history of sort of very powerful conservative forces — like Koch Industries, or even going back to Howard Pew in the 1950s and ’60s, and these are people who had a very sort of reactionary, far-right view on the world — and Canada’s oil was important to those types of business people and really funded and made possible this torrent of a very conservative politics, which has had a massive impact on our ability to deal with the climate emergency.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SMITH</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A great example of that in the book is the<b> Pine Bend refinery owned by Koch Industries.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DEMBICKI</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Yeah. I had known that Koch Industries owned and operated this refinery in Minnesota for a while, but I don’t think I knew how central it was to their company and to their history until I started doing more research for this book. Because it [is] placed so closely to the Canadian border, they could import all of this oil from Canada, which other U.S. refiners didn’t usually take because it was lower quality and </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">required specialized equipment. And so the Kochs were able to do that in their Minnesota refinery and then they can sell the processed oil as gasoline and whatever else at extremely high margins. This created so much money for Koch Industries in the early days that it really allowed the company to become the massive industrial behemoth that it is now. And then, of course, everyone knows <a href="https://www.desmog.com/koch-network-database/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">the political impact</a> of the Koch brothers becoming so wealthy, which is like an absolute restructuring of our entire political system along free market, anti-government, climate denying lines. So I was just amazed at the central role that oil from Canada played in all of that. </span></font></p><figure class="wp-block-image size-full" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Canadian oil sands giant Suncor Energy’s plant. Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/suncorenergy/4777166655/in/photostream/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">Suncor Energy</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">CC BY-NC-ND 2.0</a>)</font></figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SMITH</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I think that’s something that will surprise a lot of readers. Beyond Koch Industries, I’m wondering if you could briefly summarize the web of denial connected to the oil sands?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DEMBICKI</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Part of the reason we named the book “The Petroleum Papers” is because I was drawing heavily on this large archive of documents that DeSmog and some others obtained, called the Imperial files, which is a record going back decades of what this company discussed internally in terms of the environment and climate change. Imperial Oil was doing all of this research on climate change, going back to like the 1960s even, and then sharing a lot of that research with Exxon executives. The documents are quite, quite amazing and kind of because they show how scientists inside Imperial and Exxon not only studied climate change internally long before the public knew about it, but they also anticipated that climate change would become a major public policy issue. They were really worried that there would be government regulations that would make their oil sands operations no longer profitable. And so before this issue was even clearly defined for the public, Imperial Oil was already figuring out ways to not only discredit the science of climate change, but also to discredit solutions that could fix the climate emergency too. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SMITH</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What solutions were they studying?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DEMBICKI</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There’s a <a href="https://www.climatefiles.com/exxonmobil/1993-imperial-oil-issue-summary-of-global-warming-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">document from 1993</a> that was one of the most alarming that I saw in the entire course of doing research for this. Basically, in the early ’90s, climate change was just starting to become a publicly known issue, but it was very ill-defined so people didn’t really know what to think of it. So Imperial Oil decided to model a bunch of different potential solutions for climate change internally so it would know how to respond. Imperial studied a bunch of different solutions… [and] determined that if there was this price on carbon emissions across the whole economy, this could actually have a really big positive impact on fighting climate change.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And then, this part, which was not known before and it was just included in a few footnotes in Imperial’s research, was that in the early days of bringing in such a policy, there would be an economic hit mostly through oil refineries and stuff being closed down</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> But Imperial actually determined that all of the tax revenue from a carbon price would create this huge amount of money that governments could then spend on green infrastructure and other forms of climate stimulus. And this would actually have a positive impact on the economy</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I was just floored by that because it’s like, decades and decades ago, Imperial basically acknowledges that you could do a big part in fixing climate change, and it actually wouldn’t hurt the economy at all, it would probably be good for it. It would just be bad for Imperial Oil, and the oil sands.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> In this document in 1993, Imperial Oil came up with a<b> confidential plan to misrepresent its own research to policymakers and government and media. There were all of these talking points emphasizing the uncertainty of climate solutions, how it would be bad for the economy, it would hurt international competitiveness. </b>At this very early stage, when we could have made a big impact in fighting the climate emergency, Imperial had already planted these seeds of sabotage and denial.</span></font></p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: initial; margin: 1.5rem auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); max-width: 100px;" /><p class="has-text-align-center" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">Read:</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <a href="https://www.desmog.com/2022/09/20/exxon-imperial-oil-climate-change-proprietary-docs/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">Exxon Could Have Helped Stop Climate Change 30 Years Ago, ‘Proprietary’ Docs Show</a></span></font></p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: initial; margin: 1.5rem auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); max-width: 100px;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SMITH</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wow, that’s infuriating. A lot of the latter half of the book focuses on these climate lawsuits that have come up in the last few years, including some led by a lawyer named Steve Berman, who managed to finally get a ruling in the courts against Big Tobacco</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. He and others are now trying to prove a similar thing with Big Oil: that these companies knew that their products were harmful, and they misled the public about that. So far, these climate lawsuits haven’t succeeded, but I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on what it might take for one to succeed?</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DEMBICKI</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I mean, it’s definitely a long game. With tobacco, it took decades to get any sort of ruling against the industry. That said, there’s been climate lawsuits against Big Oil, I believe, filed by more than 20 jurisdictions in the U.S. <a href="https://www.desmog.com/lawsuits-climate-accountability-oil-governments/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">Those lawsuits</a> haven’t resulted in any big rulings against the industry yet, but the fact that they’re still all sort of moving forward and clearing procedural hurdles is a big deal. To me, though, the most significant thing that these lawsuits do is really change the narrative around climate change. For so long, we’ve had this idea that no one specifically can be held responsible for climate change because it’s something that we all contribute to. But the climate change lawsuits flip all of that on its head, and they point directly at the oil and gas industry. And it’s not just for the emissions that that industry releases, even though they’re significant. It’s the fact that we had all these really good opportunities to bring in meaningful legislation and to clean up the economy, and the oil and gas industry has played a really bad faith role in sabotaging those solutions, spreading denial about them, confusing the public, flooding politics with their money. These lawsuits are pointing blame at specific companies, specific executives, specific industry groups, and I think that we’re still in the early days, but that’s really going to profoundly change how people see the climate emergency. </font></p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Suncor’s primary extraction plants separate raw bitumen from the sand in giant separation cells. Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/suncorenergy/4777801518/in/photostream/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">Suncor Energy</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">CC BY-NC-ND 2.0</a>)</font></figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SMITH</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One of the lawsuits in particular in the book that caught your attention is a case in Colorado against an oil refinery operated by Suncor, a Canadian oil sands company, in the greater Denver area. The lawsuit names both Suncor and Exxon and calls out the oil sands as a major contributing factor to the pollution locals are dealing with. Why is that lawsuit significant?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DEMBICKI</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That one was interesting to me because it specifically named Suncor and Exxon. When I heard about that, I was like, “Oh, this is a lawsuit against the oil sands.” Suncor is the company that grew out of Sun Oil, which created the first commercial oil sands operation back in the ’60s. And the second big commercial oil sands operation was started by Imperial Oil, the Exxon subsidiary. Essentially, it’s litigation against the entire Canadian oil sands industry. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SMITH</font></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Another thing that stood out to me in the book was that some of the U.S.’s early support for developing Canada’s oil sands had to do with wanting to have a friendly source of oil in the face of communism. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I feel like we’re in a very similar moment right now, where oil and gas companies are capitalizing on a global political crisis to expand production. What can we take away from that past push to develop the oil sands that also applies to this moment we’re in?</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">DEMBICKI</font></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>I think there are two big takeaways for me, or almost like general principles of disinformation that I have observed taking place over many decades. One of them, as you pointed out, is that the oil and gas industry always, always loves to use a global political crisis for its own favo</b>r. Of course, the oil and gas industry isn’t in the business of trying to provide good faith solutions to geopolitical problems. They’re looking out for their profits, and that’s always been the case. So I think we can always expect oil and gas companies to try to turn any large global crisis in [their] favor. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The second big pattern I noticed was at the moments of greatest possibility in fixing the climate emergency, that’s when the disinformation and the torrent of denial will be at its loudest. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When governments are close to bringing in huge structural changes to the economy to fight climate change, when that poses the biggest economic threat to oil and gas companies, that’s when their denial machine really just cranks up as loud as possible.[// Brulle]</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Learn more about these issues by checking out </span><a href="https://greystonebooks.com/products/the-petroleum-papers" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dembicki’s book</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> and diving into </span><a href="https://www.desmog.com/imperial-oil-archive-canada-exxon-climate-denial/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">the Imperial Oil Files</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">.</span></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">===</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2022/09/20/exxon-imperial-oil-climate-change-proprietary-docs/">https://www.desmog.com/2022/09/20/exxon-imperial-oil-climate-change-proprietary-docs/</a></font></div><div><section class="elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-fa23b70 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default jet-parallax-section" data-id="fa23b70" data-element_type="section" data-settings="{" jet_parallax_layout_list="jet_parallax_layout_list" jet_parallax_layout_image="jet_parallax_layout_image" url="url" id="id" _id="id" jet_parallax_layout_image_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_image_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_image_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_image_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_speed="jet_parallax_layout_speed" unit="unit" size="size" sizes="sizes" jet_parallax_layout_type="jet_parallax_layout_type" scroll="scroll" jet_parallax_layout_direction="jet_parallax_layout_direction" null="null" jet_parallax_layout_fx_direction="jet_parallax_layout_fx_direction" jet_parallax_layout_z_index="jet_parallax_layout_z_index" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size" auto="auto" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_animation_prop="jet_parallax_layout_animation_prop" transform="transform" jet_parallax_layout_on="jet_parallax_layout_on" desktop="desktop" tablet="tablet" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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padding: 0px;"><h1 class="elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; line-height: 1; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Exxon Could Have Helped Stop Climate Change 30 Years Ago, ‘Proprietary’ Docs Show</font></h1></div></div><div class="elementor-element elementor-element-5446d27 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor" data-id="5446d27" data-element_type="widget" data-widget_type="text-editor.default" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); position: relative; --widgets-spacing:20px; font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); width: 860px;"><div class="elementor-widget-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: background 0.3s ease 0s, border 0.3s ease 0s, border-radius 0.3s ease 0s, box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s;"><div class="elementor-text-editor elementor-clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Instead the company’s Canadian arm developed a communications plan to make climate solutions like carbon taxes look economically reckless.</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></section><section class="elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-3e9de01 elementor-section-content-middle elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default jet-parallax-section" data-id="3e9de01" data-element_type="section" data-settings="{" jet_parallax_layout_list="jet_parallax_layout_list" jet_parallax_layout_image="jet_parallax_layout_image" url="url" id="id" id="id" a26992b="a26992b" jet_parallax_layout_image_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_image_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_image_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_image_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_speed="jet_parallax_layout_speed" unit="unit" size="size" sizes="sizes" jet_parallax_layout_type="jet_parallax_layout_type" scroll="scroll" jet_parallax_layout_direction="jet_parallax_layout_direction" null="null" jet_parallax_layout_fx_direction="jet_parallax_layout_fx_direction" jet_parallax_layout_z_index="jet_parallax_layout_z_index" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size" auto="auto" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_animation_prop="jet_parallax_layout_animation_prop" transform="transform" jet_parallax_layout_on="jet_parallax_layout_on" desktop="desktop" tablet="tablet" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); 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display: flex; width: 51.6px; margin: 0px; --e-column-margin-right:0px; --e-column-margin-left:0px;"><div class="elementor-widget-wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; width: 51.6px; flex-wrap: wrap; align-content: center; display: flex; padding: 0px; align-items: center;"><div class="elementor-element elementor-element-07ffcfb elementor-widget elementor-widget-jet-listing-dynamic-field" data-id="07ffcfb" data-element_type="widget" data-widget_type="jet-listing-dynamic-field.default" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); 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max-width: 40px; max-height: 40px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 50%; width: auto;"><picture class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" loading="lazy" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/headshot1BW-geoff-dembicki-150x150.jpg.webp 150w, https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/headshot1BW-geoff-dembicki-70x70.jpg.webp 70w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img width="150" height="150" src="https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/headshot1BW-geoff-dembicki-150x150.jpg" alt="Geoff Dembicki" loading="lazy" srcset="https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/headshot1BW-geoff-dembicki-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/headshot1BW-geoff-dembicki-70x70.jpg 70w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; border-radius: 0px; box-shadow: none; width: 40px;" /></source></font></picture></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-3d6b1f0" data-id="3d6b1f0" data-element_type="column" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); min-height: 1px; position: relative; display: flex; --widgets-spacing:20px; width: 461.5px;"><div class="elementor-column-wrap elementor-element-populated" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; display: flex; width: 461.5px;"><div class="elementor-widget-wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; width: 461.5px; flex-wrap: wrap; align-content: center; display: flex; padding: 10px 10px 10px 0px; align-items: center;"><div class="elementor-element elementor-element-9c0e6e8 elementor-widget elementor-widget-jet-listing-dynamic-meta" data-id="9c0e6e8" data-element_type="widget" data-widget_type="jet-listing-dynamic-meta.default" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); position: relative; --widgets-spacing:20px; width: 451.5px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="elementor-widget-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: background 0.3s ease 0s, border 0.3s ease 0s, border-radius 0.3s ease 0s, box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s;"><div class="jet-listing jet-listing-dynamic-meta meta-layout-inline" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="jet-listing-dynamic-metaauthor jet-listing-dynamic-metaitem" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 5px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="jet-listing-dynamic-metaprefix" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-right: 4px;">By</span><a href="https://www.desmog.com/user/geoff-dembicki/" class="jet-listing-dynamic-metaitem-val" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; box-shadow: none; font-weight: 700;">Geoff Dembicki</a></font></font></font></font></div><div class="jet-listing-dynamic-metadate jet-listing-dynamic-metaitem" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px !important;"><span class="jet-listing-dynamic-metaprefix" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-right: 4px;">on</span><span class="jet-listing-dynamic-metaitem-val" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block;"><time datetime="2022-09-20T03:00:00-07:00" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b>Sep 20, 2022 </b></time></span></div></div></div></div><div class="elementor-element elementor-element-66cef98 elementor-widget elementor-widget-shortcode" data-id="66cef98" data-element_type="widget" data-widget_type="shortcode.default" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); position: relative; --widgets-spacing:20px; width: 451.5px;"><div class="elementor-widget-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: background 0.3s ease 0s, border 0.3s ease 0s, border-radius 0.3s ease 0s, box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s;"><div class="elementor-shortcode" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="bsf-rt-reading-time" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="bsf-rt-display-label" prefix="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="bsf-rt-display-time" reading_time="4" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <span class="bsf-rt-display-postfix" postfix="min read" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></span></font></span></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-1dac003" data-id="1dac003" data-element_type="column" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); min-height: 1px; position: relative; display: flex; --widgets-spacing:20px; width: 344px;"><div class="elementor-column-wrap elementor-element-populated" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; display: flex; width: 344px;"><div class="elementor-widget-wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; width: 344px; flex-wrap: wrap; place-content: flex-end; display: flex; padding: 10px 0px; align-items: flex-end;"><div class="elementor-element elementor-element-bdb547b series-indicator jedv-enabled--yes elementor-widget elementor-widget-global elementor-global-26776 elementor-widget-shortcode" data-id="bdb547b" data-element_type="widget" data-widget_type="shortcode.default" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); position: relative; --widgets-spacing:20px; width: 344px; display: table;"><div class="elementor-widget-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: background 0.3s ease 0s, border 0.3s ease 0s, border-radius 0.3s ease 0s, box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s; display: flex; justify-content: flex-end;"><div class="elementor-shortcode" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="series-short-list" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Series: <a href="https://www.desmog.com/imperial-oil-archive-canada-exxon-climate-denial/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none; font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(255, 255, 255) 50%, rgb(252, 204, 39) 0%); background-size: auto 200%; background-position: 0px 25%; transition: background-position 0.3s ease-out 0s; display: inline;">IMPERIAL OIL FILES</a></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></section></div></div></div></div></div></section><section class="elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-2131bcd elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default jet-parallax-section" data-id="2131bcd" data-element_type="section" data-settings="{" jet_parallax_layout_list="jet_parallax_layout_list" jet_parallax_layout_image="jet_parallax_layout_image" url="url" id="id" id="id" dbae5d="dbae5d" jet_parallax_layout_image_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_image_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_image_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_image_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_speed="jet_parallax_layout_speed" unit="unit" size="size" sizes="sizes" jet_parallax_layout_type="jet_parallax_layout_type" scroll="scroll" jet_parallax_layout_direction="jet_parallax_layout_direction" null="null" jet_parallax_layout_fx_direction="jet_parallax_layout_fx_direction" jet_parallax_layout_z_index="jet_parallax_layout_z_index" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size" auto="auto" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_animation_prop="jet_parallax_layout_animation_prop" transform="transform" jet_parallax_layout_on="jet_parallax_layout_on" desktop="desktop" tablet="tablet" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); position: relative; --widgets-spacing:20px;"><div class="jet-parallax-sectionlayout elementor-repeater-item-7dbae5d jet-parallax-sectionscroll-layout" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; position: absolute; width: 1519.2px; height: 3466.1px; top: 0px; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; pointer-events: none; perspective: 1200px;"><div class="jet-parallax-sectionimage" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 1519.2px; height: 3466.1px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; background-position: 50% 50%; will-change: transform; transition: transform 0.5s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.88, 0.54, 0.98) 0s, background-position 0s linear 0s, -webkit-transform 0.5s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.88, 0.54, 0.98) 0s; background-image: url(" transform="transform" translatey="translateY" px="px"><div class="elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; position: relative; max-width: 1440px;"><div class="elementor-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 1440px; display: flex;"><div class="elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-5e97169" data-id="5e97169" data-element_type="column" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); min-height: 1px; position: relative; display: flex; --widgets-spacing:20px; width: 1440px;"><div class="elementor-column-wrap elementor-element-populated" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; display: flex; width: 1440px; margin: 0px; --e-column-margin-right:0px; --e-column-margin-left:0px;"><div class="elementor-widget-wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; width: 1440px; flex-wrap: wrap; align-content: flex-start; display: flex; padding: 0px;"><section class="elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-a707a68 elementor-section-content-middle post-content-container elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default jet-parallax-section" data-id="a707a68" data-element_type="section" data-settings="{" jet_parallax_layout_list="jet_parallax_layout_list" jet_parallax_layout_image="jet_parallax_layout_image" url="url" id="id" id="id" a26992b="a26992b" jet_parallax_layout_image_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_image_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_image_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_image_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_speed="jet_parallax_layout_speed" unit="unit" size="size" sizes="sizes" jet_parallax_layout_type="jet_parallax_layout_type" scroll="scroll" jet_parallax_layout_direction="jet_parallax_layout_direction" null="null" jet_parallax_layout_fx_direction="jet_parallax_layout_fx_direction" jet_parallax_layout_z_index="jet_parallax_layout_z_index" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_x_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_y_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size" auto="auto" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_tablet="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_tablet" jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_mobile="jet_parallax_layout_bg_size_mobile" jet_parallax_layout_animation_prop="jet_parallax_layout_animation_prop" transform="transform" jet_parallax_layout_on="jet_parallax_layout_on" desktop="desktop" tablet="tablet" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); position: relative; --widgets-spacing:20px; width: 1440px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="jet-parallax-sectionlayout elementor-repeater-item-a26992b jet-parallax-sectionscroll-layout" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; position: absolute; width: 1440px; height: 3466.1px; top: 0px; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; pointer-events: none; perspective: 1200px;"><div class="jet-parallax-section__image" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 1440px; height: 3466.1px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; background-position: 50% 50%; will-change: transform; transition: transform 0.5s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.88, 0.54, 0.98) 0s, background-position 0s linear 0s, -webkit-transform 0.5s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.88, 0.54, 0.98) 0s; background-image: url(" transform="transform" translatey="translateY" px="px"><div class="elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; position: relative; max-width: 860px;"><div class="elementor-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 860px; display: flex;"><div class="elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-7720d06" data-id="7720d06" data-element_type="column" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); min-height: 1px; position: relative; display: flex; --widgets-spacing:20px; width: 860px;"><div class="elementor-column-wrap elementor-element-populated" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; display: flex; width: 860px; margin: 0px; --e-column-margin-right:0px; --e-column-margin-left:0px;"><div class="elementor-widget-wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; width: 860px; flex-wrap: wrap; align-content: center; display: flex; padding: 0px; align-items: center;"><div class="elementor-element elementor-element-ef5f047 single-post-content elementor-widget elementor-widget-theme-post-content" data-id="ef5f047" data-element_type="widget" data-widget_type="theme-post-content.default" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); position: relative; --widgets-spacing:20px; width: 860px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><div class="elementor-widget-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: background 0.3s ease 0s, border 0.3s ease 0s, border-radius 0.3s ease 0s, box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s;"><div id="bsf_rt_marker" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Exxon figured out a solution that could have helped achieve “stabilization” of the climate emergency back in the early 1990s, and then came up with a communication strategy to make sure that solution wouldn’t happen. </font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That’s <a href="https://www.climatefiles.com/exxonmobil/1993-imperial-oil-issue-summary-of-global-warming-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">according to a newly reviewed 1993 document</a> labeled “proprietary” that was written by the company’s Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil, one of the top producers in a heavily polluting oil deposit known as the Alberta tar sands.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b>The document directed leaders at the company to stress the “many uncertainties” of implementing a national tax on greenhouse gas emissions when talking with journalists and politicians, even though Imperial Oil had privately studied the policy and learned that it could cause national emissions to plateau and then shrink without doing significant damage to the economy. </b></font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Exxon had back then used its vast political and financial power to aggressively push for a national carbon tax to be adopted in major economies around the world, global emissions might have already peaked by now. “We’d be headed down the backside,” environmental writer and 350.org founder Bill McKibben argues in my new book entitled <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-petroleum-papers-geoff-dembicki/1140993623" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy To Cover Up Climate Change</span></a>.  </font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Enrique Rosero, a scientist who spent 10 years working for Exxon before <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvx84q/exxon-silences-staff-alarmed-by-the-climate-crisis-says-former-employee-enrique-rosero" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">being pushed out</a> for questioning its opposition to climate solutions, agrees his former employer could have made a huge early impact in the climate fight by pushing for a carbon tax.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );">“That would have significantly changed incentives for everything,” he says in</span><b> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Petroleum Papers</span>.</b><span style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );"> “It would have been so much easier to address the crisis if we’d started then.”   </span></font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The main problem with a carbon tax from Imperial Oil’s perspective was that it would drastically harm the company’s sizable investments in Canada’s massive oil patch. “Imposition of increased taxes to dampen demand and influence supply mix could increase the relative supply costs of energy intensive/higher carbon content fossil fuels such as oil sands,” the 1993 document says. </font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This could potentially “result in a 12% reduction in downstream revenue” for Imperial Oil, the document warned, equivalent to losses of 940 million Canadian dollars. </font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For that reason the company came up with a list of talking points targeted to “government, thought leaders and media” that would make carbon taxes look economically reckless. This “Basic Strategy/Action Plan” also was apparently shared with leaders at “Exxon’s Environment and Safety and Corporate Planning networks.” </font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Step one in the plan was to warn people in power that climate policies such as a carbon tax would hurt a “precarious economy and international competitiveness” while achieving only “uncertainty in environmental benefits.” </font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Leaders at Imperial Oil and Exxon should argue publicly that it “makes little sense to act unilaterally to respond to a global issue” and that responding to global warming “doesn’t warrant drastic steps at this time,” according to Imperial Oil’s communication plan. </font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This position was a misrepresentation of Imperial’s own research on climate solutions, which was contained in a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">1991 report presented to the oil and gas company by an economics consulting firm known as DRI/McGraw-Hill.  </span></font></p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: initial; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100px;" /><p class="has-text-align-center" style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2022/09/20/petroleum-papers-geoff-dembicki-oil-sands-canada-exxon-imperial-syncrude-climate-denial/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Read a Q&A with Geoff Dembicki, author of the book </span>The Petroleum Papers</font></a></p><hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: initial; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100px;" /><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">That report showed that if a major greenhouse gas emitter like Canada forced polluters to pay a tax of CA$55 for each ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, it would result in policymakers and executives closing down oil refineries and coal power plants, building renewable energy sources, phasing out diesel locomotives, making car engines less polluting, and reducing emissions from buildings. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b>All this would have the potential to stop the climate emergency in its tracks, resulting in “approximate stabilization of Canada’s CO2 emissions</b><span style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );">,” the 1991 </span><a href="https://www.climatefiles.com/exxonmobil/1991-imperial-oil-carbon-tax-study/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">report read</a><span style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );">. This is exactly what would be needed in order for a global economic power like Canada to do its part to halt climate change. </span></font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Imperial calculated there would be up-front costs associated with this policy shift. But those costs would be primarily felt by the fossil fuel industry. “The Canadian oil and gas industry, which is heavily concentrated in Alberta, would be harshly penalized,” the report warned. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">Overall the country’s economy would be fine, however.</b><span style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );"> The reason for that is </span><b>“government would have enormous amounts of additional revenue once carbon taxes are imposed,” the report explains, potentially allowing for a massive green build-out effort. “The surge in capital spending mitigates the impact on the economy after the year 2000,”</b><span style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );"> Imperial </span><a href="https://www.climatefiles.com/exxonmobil/1991-imperial-oil-carbon-tax-study/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">learned</a><span style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );">. </span></font></p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large" style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dive into a DeSmog special series, <a href="https://www.desmog.com/imperial-oil-archive-canada-exxon-climate-denial/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">The Imperial Oil Files: How a Canadian Oil Giant Followed Exxon into Climate Denial</a>.</font></figcaption></figure><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Armed with this knowledge, Imperial then created a “well developed and broadly communicated position aimed at limiting non market-driven response steps” to climate change. That is the strategy laid out in the “proprietary” 1993 document. </font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thus, at a crucial early moment when the world could have gotten the climate emergency under control, Exxon and its Canadian subsidiary chose to sabotage what they knew to be the most effective solution, McKibben argues. </font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I think that’s the part that’s sometimes hard for people to understand,” he said. During the early 1990s when this research was being conducted, “we had a variety of options that were fairly modest.” But with each wasted year since then, he explains, the climate emergency, and the solutions at hand to fix it, have become more and more dire.   </font></p><p style="font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">

Editor’s note: Learn more about these issues by checking out...https://greystonebooks.com/products/the-petroleum-paper

Dembicki’s book

https://www.desmog.com/imperial-oil-archive-canada-exxon-climate-denial/...the Imperial Oil Files. 

yyy

https://theintercept.us...

imperial Oil, Canada’s Exxon Subsidiary, Ignored Its Own Climate Change Research for Decades, Archive Shows

Imperial publicly denied the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions even as its research arm concluded the pollutants contributed to climate change.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Arial, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://theintercept.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=43fc0c0fce9292d8bed09ca27&id=f09123ac1f&e=613b87ca24" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">READ MORE →</font></a></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/12/03/imperial-oil-archives-climate-denial-energy-research

Today, DeSmog and the <a href="https://climateinvestigations.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Climate Investigations Center</a> are co-launching a <a href="http://www.climatefiles.com/bp/introduction-to-the-imperial-oil-archival-document-collection/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">large collection of documents</a> from Exxon's Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Oil, that DeSmog collected from a company archive in Calgary over the past several years.</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These documents add new context to the groundbreaking investigative reporting by <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Inside Climate News</a>, and the <a href="https://journalism.columbia.edu/two-year-long-investigation-what-exxon-knew-about-climate-change" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Columbia School of Journalism</a> in partnership with the <a href="https://graphics.latimes.com/oil-operations/#about" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Los Angeles Times</a>, that revealed the #ExxonKnew conspiracy. Those journalistic efforts exposed the facts that Exxon’s own climate science research had confirmed the role of fossil fuels in driving global warming, and that the company pivoted away from that advanced knowledge, choosing instead to spend tens of millions of dollars funding climate science denial campaigns.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="docs-internal-guid-95d4a6f3-7fff-902b-b6fd-5557ed63a5db" style="font-weight: 700;" /></font></p><div class="view view-in-this-series view-id-in_this_series view-display-id-block_1 view-dom-id-ca219fec4f40738dcbff605dcf34fb4e" style="float: right; clear: left; width: 170px; background: url(" sites="sites" all="all" themes="themes" desmog2015="desmog2015" images="images" desmog-series-list.jpg="desmog-series-list.jpg" center="center" top="top" no-repeat="no-repeat" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" border-bottom="border-bottom" solid="solid"><span id="docs-internal-guid-95d4a6f3-7fff-902b-b6fd-5557ed63a5db" style="font-weight: 700;"><div class="view-content"><div class="item-list"><ul style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; list-style-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" themes="themes" desmog2015="desmog2015" images="images" desmog-series-arrow.gif="desmog-series-arrow.gif"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="views-field views-field-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="field-content"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/12/03/imperial-oil-arrow-spill-public-relations-exxon" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Years Before Exxon Valdez, Documents Show Exxon’s Imperial Oil Prioritized Public Image Over Spill Impacts</a></span></font></div></li><li class="views-row views-row-2 views-row-even views-row-last"><div class="views-field views-field-title"><span class="field-content"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/12/03/exxon-imperial-oil-canada-climate-change-public-relations" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New Documents Reveal Exxon-owned Canadian Oil Giant’s Shifting Climate Change <span class="caps" style="">PR</span></a></span></div></li></ul></div></div></span></div><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While most of the media attention has focused on ExxonMobil, this new archive provides further proof that Imperial Oil was also well-versed in climate science and the consequences of fossil fuel pollution in altering global climate.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As Kevin Grandia and I <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/04/26/there-no-doubt-exxon-knew-co2-pollution-was-global-threat-late-1970s" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported on DeSmog in 2016</a>, Imperial Oil knew by the late 1970s that burning fossil fuels was the primary cause of climate change. And the company was unequivocal about it, stating bluntly in the report we discovered in the archive</span>:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1.5em 30px;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>It is assumed that the major contributors of <span class="caps" style="">CO2</span> are the burning of fossil fuels… <span style="font-weight: 700;">There is no doubt that increases in fossil fuel usage</span> and decreases of forest cover are <span style="font-weight: 700;">aggravating the potential problem of increased </span><span class="caps" style="">CO2</span><span style="font-weight: 700;"> in the atmosphere</span>. Technology exists to remove <span class="caps" style="">CO2</span> from stack gases but removal of only 50% of the <span class="caps" style="">CO2</span> would double the cost of power generation.” [emphasis added]
[click here to download the full <span class="caps" style="">PDF</span> version of <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/DeSmogBlog-Imperial%20Oil%20Archives-Review%20Environmental%20Activities-1980.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">“Review of Environmental Protection Activities for 1978-1979”</a>]</font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our reporting at the time demonstrated that the knowledge of the carbon dioxide pollution threat was indeed global across Exxon’s worldwide operations, earlier than previously known, and considered a major challenge for the company’s future operations. We also cited an earlier document, from 1970, confirming that <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5792681-1970-Pollution-Is-Everybody-s-Business.html#document/p4/a537272" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Imperial Oil recognized <span class="caps" style="">CO2</span> as an “air pollutant”</a> — a designation which the oil industry has long sought to evade.  </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DeSmog researchers visited this corporate archive, which was housed at the <a href="https://www.glenbow.org/collections/archives/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Glenbow Museum</a>, many times over several years. The full paper collection was recently moved to the <a href="https://glenbow.ucalgary.ca/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">University of Calgary</a>. The <a href="http://www.climatefiles.com/bp/introduction-to-the-imperial-oil-archival-document-collection/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">searchable set of documents</a> we’re releasing today is the most comprehensive collection of the documents available online.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of the newly released documents are from the 1980s and 1990s, although a few reach back as early as the 1960s. They show how the company's actions in Canada diverged quite significantly from what Exxon was doing and saying in the U.S., especially around the environment and global warming — at least at first. Then came the global corporate campaign to spread doubt, denial, and delay.</font></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); border-image: initial; margin: 1.5em 0px;" /><p class="rtecenter" style="text-align: left; margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Related: View the <span style="font-weight: 700;"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/global-climate-coalition-files" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Global Climate Coalition files</a></span>, a previous collaborative effort between DeSmog, Climate Investigations Center, and Climate Liability News exposing the industry-funded effort to confuse the public and derail climate solutions.</font></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); border-image: initial; margin: 1.5em 0px;" /><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There are many issues and themes covered in this new collection that will be of interest, including Imperial’s relations with First Nations, its early analysis of potential carbon tax schemes and pollution abatement policies, the oil industry’s forays into Arctic drilling and transporting crude oil under harsh conditions, and much more.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We encourage all journalists, legal and academic researchers, and decisionmakers to peruse this collection of documents, as there are many unreported and lesser-known stories within. We will add any news stories that come out below, so <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/contact_us" style="text-decoration-line: none;">please reach out </a>if you write anything or see something related to this collection.  </font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="caps" style="">MEDIA</span> <span class="caps" style="">COVERAGE</span> <span class="caps" style="">ABOUT</span> <span class="caps" style="">IMPERIAL</span> <span class="caps" style="">OIL</span> <span class="caps" style="">FILES</span></font></h3><ul style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;"><li><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/12/03/exxon-imperial-oil-canada-climate-change-public-relations" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New Documents Show Exxon-owned Canadian Oil Giant's Shifting Climate Change <span class="caps" style="">PR</span></a> (DeSmog, by Sharon Kelly)</font></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/12/03/imperial-oil-arrow-spill-public-relations-exxon" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Years Before Exxon Valdez, Documents Show Exxon’s Imperial Oil Prioritized Public Image Over Spill Impacts</a> (DeSmog, by Justin Mikulka)</font></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/exxon-imperial-oil-carbon-tax_n_5de5b57de4b0913e6f84120f" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">28 Years Ago, Big Oil Predicted It Would Take A High Price On Carbon To Stop Warming</a> (HuffPost, by Alexander C. Kaufman)</font></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://climateinvestigations.org/imperial-oil-document-trove/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Imperial Oil Document Trove </a>(Climate Investigations Center)</font></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.climatefiles.com/bp/introduction-to-the-imperial-oil-archival-document-collection/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Introduction to the Imperial Oil Archival Document Collection</a> (Climate Files)</font></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2019/12/03/exxon-carbon-tax-imperial-oil-canada/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Exxon Backs a Modest Carbon Tax, But Knows Only a Strong One Will Slow Climate Change</a> (Climate Liability News, by Karen Savage)</font></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-04/an-exxon-owned-firm-figured-out-how-to-curb-co2-in-1991" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">An Exxon-Owned Firm Figured Out How to Curb <span class="caps" style="">CO2</span> in 1991</a> (Bloomberg News, by Eric Roston) (also on <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2019/12/04/exxon-subsidiary-figured-out-how-to-curb-co2-pollution-nearly-30-years-ago/...The Dallas Morning News" />)</font></span></li><li /></ul><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View the entire DeSmog series at <span style="font-weight: 700;"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/imperial-oil-archive-canada-exxon-climate-denial" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Imperial Oil Files: How a Canadian Oil Giant Followed Exxon into Climate Denial</a></span></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===

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