FTI P R bak

no lnx

bad format/code on consult

all have same sr title, nearly all ex staffers, one boehner

dittus --> FT consulting --> FTI

see IPAA EID

clean creatives 9 22

FTI CONSULTING

ExxonMobil / IPAA (Independent Petroleum Association Of America)

FTI CONSULTING / COMPASS LEXECON (Subsidiary)

National Association of Manufacturers

desmog 12 22

Congressional investigators released a new set of documents that underscored the oil and gas industry’s ongoing attempts to block climate policies and confuse the public about their long-term investments in fossil fuels. The latest tranche of documents caps off a nearly two-year investigation that appears set to come to an end with Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives in January.

On December 9, the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee published its latest set of documents as part of its ongoing investigation into the oil industry’s history of climate denial and obfuscation. The documents offer more evidence showing that the industry’s “greenwashing” continues up to the present day.

“They’re basically saying, ‘we’re going to increase production, we’re going to increase emissions, but we’re also going to be able to claim being this clean tech company, this green company, because we can take some symbolic actions that make it look like we’re in the climate fight,’” Rep. Ro Khanna, (D-CA), a member of the committee, told NBC News.

“The cynicism was breathtaking, and unfortunately, it was quite successful,” he said, “It’s been a successful PR strategy.”

[twt]

the framing over the role of methane gas offers one glaring example. For years, the industry and its supporters have claimed that methane gas serves as a “bridge fuel” due to its perceived climate benefit over burning coal. That claim has not been backed up by the science, which increasingly shows that methane leaks can erase the upside of gas compared to coal.

But even if true, internal communications show that despite their external claims, oil executives view gas not as a temporary “bridge,” but as something more permanent.

“For sure the bridge is very long in any event, but it is conceivable that gas could serve as a destination fuel to back up intermittent renewables (possibly with CCS) in the much longer term,” Bob Stout, a former BP vice president said in a 2017 email. “We would not want to spell all this out, but also not implicitly concede the point by referring to it mainly as a ‘bridge.’”

Another revelation points to the oil industry’s efforts to cultivate influence through its financial support for Ivy League universities. In another 2019 email from Stout, in which he discusses BP’s efforts at “nurturing” its relationship with Princeton University, he admits that ties with major American universities is part of a strategy of burnishing the industry’s image and also enhancing its influence.

“I would only add that in addition to the value in informing our understanding of climate science and policy, these relationships (along with those we have with Harvard, Tufts and Columbia) are key parts of our long-term relationship-building and outreach to policy makers and influencers in the US and globally,” Stout wrote. He added that BP gets “valuable intel” from its ties to the handful of prestigious universities, and that the company is able to “tell the story of what we are doing and why in a more personal and compelling way,” adding that “[i]n return they are able to give us valuable input on our strategies and messaging.”

DeSmog has previously reported on the oil industry’s attempts to push its agenda through Ivy League universities. And a podcast collaboration between Drilled and Earther explored how oil companies have long been influencing American education for corporate benefit, from elementary schools to universities like Harvard. The latest release adds even more explicit evidence of an intentional strategy.

BP and Princeton University did not respond to a request for comment.

These are just a few examples in the latest batch of revelations.

“New evidence released today further confirms what we know to be true—the companies and trade associations under investigation have followed a well-established playbook that includes greenwashing with misleading or outright false claims about their climate-related actions,” Kathy Mulvey, accountability campaign director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “Such tactics aim to undermine the urgent need to sharply reduce heat-trapping emissions and to stall and obstruct oversight and accountability.”

Quest for Accountability Continues

In the latest document dump, executives at Shell discuss how they do not want to be associated with ExxonMobil, a company Shell apparently views as too toxic.

“I do not support Shell publicly participating in any announcements, press releases or other public engagement of any kind at this time with XOM,” Gretchen Watkins, the president of Shell Oil Co., said in a 2021 email, using Exxon’s stock symbol.

“Their reputation is severely damaged here, and we will only do harm to the strength of Shell’s US reputation,” she added.

The conflict within the industry is noteworthy, and points to more vulnerability than the public-facing messaging suggests, says Kert Davies, founder and director of Climate Investigations Center.

“Strategically, what we’ve learned is that they are more often on their backfoot than what we know. They pretend to have a unified front, one voice, and they are often doubting themselves and backbiting on each other, or trying to outdo each other, or worried about how others think about them in the industry,” Davies told DeSmog. “The them vs. them stuff is interesting.”

Shell did not respond to a request for comment.

Davies cited that as an example of one of the overarching themes that the House committee investigation has successfully demonstrated — that the oil industry says one thing in private and another thing in public. It also shows that the industry is very concerned about its future.

Republicans captured control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections and will begin a new term in January. That means they will assume the majority on the Oversight Committee and presumably put an end to the investigation.

Even though the committee’s work in this realm will stop, the congressional investigation into the oil industry’s history of deception and its ongoing attempts to foil climate action notched some substantial achievements.

In 2021, the House Oversight and Reform Committee grilled oil executives on their roles in spreading disinformation in a historic public hearing. The investigation has also succeeded in obtaining a vast trove of documents and internal communications that illustrate in detail how oil companies continue to spread a public message about its good-faith efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions while privately admitting that those efforts are misleading.

“[The committee] did more than anybody has to take this on. They issued pretty strong subpoenas, were rebuffed by and large, but stuck with it. They didn’t take no for an answer. They actually pressured enough to get some documents,” Davies said. “I think Ro Khanna and team deserved to be applauded for pushing a very tough play. Something that many would have never taken on. And the potential for it to go not well and to look bad was high.”

He added that the scope of the committee’s investigation was ambitious, perhaps overly so, and it didn’t have enough time to complete its work. “I wish they had gotten more because it was probably the last time we get a bite at this unless the Senate picks it up,” he said.

Representative Khanna said that millions of documents the committee obtained will be turned over to those that can carry the work forward. “That’s the only way we’re going to have accountability,” he told NBC News. “You can’t expect a House subcommittee to go up against oil companies that have been misleading the American public for 40 years and all of a sudden have accountability.”

It’s not clear what form this will take. The Democrats have a majority in the Senate, which means that Senate committees could conceivably take up the investigation in some form or another.

In a parallel investigation this year, another House committee, theNatural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, shined a spotlight on FTI Consulting,and other PR firms, that have spent years helping its oil and gas clients mislead the public. That effort is also expected to end with the transition in power next month.

Even as the House probes have run their course, advocates praised the House Oversight Committee’s work over the past two years and the insights that have come out of it.

“This investigation is a critical step forward in holding Big Oil accountable for its decades of deception and harm,” Mulvey of the Union of Concerned Scientists said. “With clear evidence in hand, the path toward justice for communities harmed by oil and gas company misconduct is within reach.”

===

https://www.desmog.com/2022/12/09/pesticide-industry-science-denial-monsanto-glyphosate-cancer/

As regulators in the United States and European Union prepare to review and potentially reauthorize the controversial weedkiller glyphosate, anew report reveals the stealth tactics and narrative spin deployed by the chemical’s manufacturer to discredit inconvenient science and protect profits.

The report, published by Friends of the Earth and nonprofit investigative organization U.S. Right to Know, uses the case study of Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) and its widely used glyphosate-based product Roundup to illustrate the pesticide industry’sdeceptive tactics and communications strategies — which mirror those of the tobacco and fossil fuel industries.

“The pesticide industry is not just following in the footsteps of Big Tobacco and Big Oil, they co-wrote the playbook,” Stacy Malkan, lead report author and co-founder of U.S. Right to Know, said.

The pesticide industry used this PR strategy, which involves tactics like distorting science and disseminating misleading messaging through third party allies, to convince regulators and the public that its products were safe and necessary, the report explains.

“This case study provides an important window into how one company worked with many partners across the pesticide and processed food industries, academia, PR firms, and various front groups to sell the world on a toxic pesticide,”said author and advocate Anna Lappé, who contributed to the report. “These disinformation tactics are critical to understand because they have been used to push the entwined myths that we need pesticides to ‘feed the world’ and that they are totally safe.”

Despite mounting scientific evidence of their harms to human health and the environment, pesticides have proliferated, withglobal usage up by about 80 percent since 1990. The most widely used pesticide in the world is Roundup, which is alleged to have caused cancers. Litigation over this cancer link is ongoing, spurred by a 2015 finding from the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm classifying the chemical as a probable human carcinogen.

[twt]

the report, released December 5, brings together internal corporate documents revealed through this litigation, as well as documents obtained through public records requests filed by U.S. Right to Know, to illuminate the extensive campaign by one of the world’s leading pesticide manufacturers — Monsanto, acquired by Bayer in 2018 — to disseminate disinformation and manipulate science regarding the health and environmental impacts of glyphosate.

These strategies have been “used by the pesticide industry for decades now and [their] impact on public health is enormous,” Nathan Donley, PhD, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, told DeSmog via email.

Litigation concerning the health hazards of various pesticides, including glyphosate, stems from companies hijacking the regulatory process, he explained. “This can happen multiple ways, from pressuring decision makers at the EPA to producing enormous amounts of biased data that guide the actions of regulators. It’s been very effective unfortunately.”

For example, as noted in the report, under pressure from Monsanto in 1986, EPA overturned its own decision made the previous year to classify glyphosate as a possible human carcinogen. To this day, EPA maintains the position that glyphosate is not carcinogenic and does not pose human health risks if used according to its label. However, the agency is planning to conduct a new review of the chemical after a federal appeals courtstruck down EPA’s previous designation of glyphosate as benign.

The report found that over a five-year period, seven front groups with links to Monsanto spent $76 million “to push corporate disinformation, including attacks on scientists.” During that same period, six industry trade associations that appear in Monsanto PR papers spent $1.3 billion, including on lobbying and PR around glyphosate regulation.

It also argues that the pesticide industry’s current business model “would not be possible if pesticide products were subject to rigorous, independent research and if there were widespread public understanding of the harms and risks of many of these products.”

“It’s clear from this report and all the work that’s been done in this field that corporate influence in science-based decision-making is way too common,” said Genna Reed, director of policy analysis in the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, and lead author of a2021 study exploring ways to protect scientific integrity from the corporate “disinformation playbook.”

“This isn’t just a wonky policy problem,” Reed added. “This is a massive institutional rot that needs to be fixed to protect public health.”

Fossil Fuel and Pesticide Industry Parallels

In addition to pressuring regulators, Monsanto deployed other strategies to discredit evidence of health and environmental harms of its glyphosate-based product. The report found that Monsanto undermined or even shaped the science, attacked public health experts, bought influence at academic institutions, and used third party messengers to pollute the public discourse. These are the same strategies — and in some instances involved the same actors — that the tobacco and fossil fuel industries used to generate doubt and to deceive the public about the harmful consequences of their products.

According to the report, Monsanto covertly contributed to the scientific literature examining the health risks of glyphosate, ghostwriting papers in toxicology journals, including an influential paper published in April 2000 that concluded that glyphosate-based Roundup “does not pose a health risk to humans.” Internal company emails reveal that Monsanto employees played critical roles in data collection, drafting, editing, and relationship-building with the paper’s authors. In the wake of the 2015 glyphosate classification from the World Health Organization’s cancer research agency, Monsanto ghostwrote scientific manuscripts published in a prestigious journal as an “independent review” on the science of glyphosate. The company also orchestrated a campaign to intimidate cancer researchers and enlist Republican lawmakers to try to defund the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm.

[twt]

monsanto’s influence extended to academia.The report details how the company funded academics and universities to promote educational messaging supportive of pesticides and genetically engineered organisms (GMOs) — seed traits designed to resist toxic chemicals. Emails obtained from records requests reveal that the University of Florida, for example, “had plans for ‘educating the masses’ about GMOs and pesticides with messaging that was ‘harmonious’ with Monsanto’s,” Malkan explained.

This co-opting of academia was part of a larger pro-pesticide PR strategy. As the report explains, PR firms that helped Monsanto defend glyphosate and promote GMOs have worked with other polluting industries, including tobacco and fossil fuels. For example,**FTI Consulting**, which has worked extensively with the oil and gas industry, has also worked closely with Monsanto/Bayer to discredit the science on glyphosate.

Furthermore, as the report details, one industry front group that worked to attack cancer scientists and dispute the evidence linking glyphosate to cancer was the Genetic Literacy Project. Its founder Jon Entine has worked in defense of chemicals, plastics, fracking, and oil companies, and the group’s funding sources “trace back to some of the largest, most consistent funders of climate science denial.” These include foundations like Donors Trust, Scaife Foundation, and Charles Koch Foundation. Other institutions that engaged in climate denial — including Competitive Enterprise Institute,Heartland Institute,Cato Institute, andCommittee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) — also attacked scientists who raised concerns over glyphosate, according to the report.

“This is not surprising since nearly all agricultural chemicals are derived from fossil fuels,” Malkan said, adding that both industries are continuing to mislead the public in portraying their business or products as essential to climate and sustainability solutions.

“Just like Big Oil, pesticide companies are using disinformation tactics to push false solutions for the climate crisis, and stalling action on real solutions,” Malkan added. ADeSmog investigation published in November 2020 described how pesticide companies are now marketing themselves as climate-friendly.

“Pesticide companies are desperately trying to, and in many instances are successfully greenwashing the poisons they make billions of dollars selling,” Lori Ann Burd, senior attorney and environmental health program director at Center for Biological Diversity, said via email. She added that many U.S. government officials have adopted the pesticides industry’s position that their products are necessary.

“USDA, EPA and many members of Congress have largely bought in to industry rhetoric that dangerous pesticides are essential tools for feeding Americans, ignoring the reality that many countries, including Brazil, China and nations within the E.U. continue to eat despite having banned dangerous pesticides that are still widely used in the U.S.,” she explained. UN human rights experts have also pushed back against the claim that pesticides are necessary to feed the world.

Bayer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Countering the Disinformation Playbook

The report concludes with some recommendations and steps to take to counter the pesticide industry disinformation playbook. According to this advice, which is aligned with that of other experts in fighting disinformation, exposing the tactics and strategies and enforcing strong disclosure and accountability rules are important steps to mitigate undue industry influence.

“We need to continue to shine a light on these practices and actively work on policies that can serve as firewalls,” Reed of the Union of Concerned Scientists said.

Other recommendations include challenging corporate influence in academia and holding PR firms accountable. Just as there are now campaigns to do just that for fossil fuels, the report calls for similar action and pressure for combatting pesticide industry influence and enablers.

“While the propaganda tactics of Big Oil and Big Tobacco are well-documented and their grave impacts well understood, the pesticide industry’s similar role in widespread disinformation, and its extensive scope and impact, has not been as well documented or publicly understood. We hope this report, and the chorus of recent reporting, will change that,” the report states.

===

https://www.desmog.com/**2022/08**/26/fti-consulting-fossil-fuels-work-climate-disinformation-house-natural-resources-subpoena/

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.

Last year, a House committeeheld hearings in which members of Congress questioned oil executives on their role in peddling climate disinformation. But in June of this year, a separate committee, the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sentletters to five PR firms — Story Partners, DDC Advocacy, Blue Advertising, Singer Associates, and FTI Consulting — requesting all documents related to their work running influence or marketing campaigns for oil, gas, and coal companies and their trade groups. The PR industry has been a critical but often overlooked player in the history of climate denial, as DeSmog hasreported.

“For decades, fossil fuel companies and associations have engaged in public relations campaigns to downplay the threat of climate change and the central role fossil fuels have played in causing it,” the committee’s June letter stated. “Fossil fuel companies and trade groups have partnered with PR firms to use a variety of questionable tactics to undermine legislative and regulatory environmental initiatives.”

Two months after the request, FTI still had not turned over documents. The Committee grew impatient with the stonewalling, and on August 17, it fired off anotherletter, stating that “FTI has not wavered in its blanket refusal to provide even the most basic information about its clients or descriptions of the grounds for its refusal beyond the vaguest assertions of confidentiality and privileges.”

It then went on to warn: “FTI has provided no indication that this obstruction of congressional oversight will come to an end voluntarily. 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.”

“Through its past client work and present refusal to cooperate with an ongoing congressional investigation, FTI Consulting is engaging in climate obstruction,” Christine Arena, a former VP at Edelman, who has tried to expose the PR industry’s role working on behalf of its fossil fuel clients, said in a statement to DeSmog. “Refusing to cooperate with the House Natural Resources Committee suggests that FTI knows it has something to hide, yet believes it is beyond reproach. Its flagrant disregard for the negative consequences of disinformation undermines the reputation of the PR and ad industry as a whole.”

A “Permanent Campaign Strategy”

FTI’s work for its fossil fuel clients goes far beyond creating billboards, online ads, or TV commercials, as a run-of-the-mill PR firm might do.

“You only hire a PR company when you have a problem to solve. And you hire an FTI when you’ve got real problems. You need dirty tricks. This is not just like selling a hamburger,” Kert Davies, founder and director of Climate Investigations Center, told DeSmog. “This is designing an influence campaign. It’s like designing a whole intelligence operation.”

The head of FTI’s Strategic Communications for the Americas is a man named Brian Kennedy, who was the communications strategist for drilling contractor Transocean, which owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. Kennedy, who “is best known for his expertise in crisis management,” as hisbio on the FTI website says, headed up Transocean’s PR work during the disaster and in the litigation that followed.

The campaigns waged by FTI for its fossil fuel clients are extensive and wide-ranging. As the New York Timesreported in 2020, FTI helped set up regional astroturf websites for its oil industry clients, such as Texans for Natural Gas, New Mexicans for Economic Prosperity, Citizens to Protect PA Jobs, Western Wire, and the Arctic Energy Center. The websites artificially created the appearance of grassroots political energy, and shared misleading “news” that downplayed environmental damage from fracking while simultaneously promoting the benefits of pro-drilling policies.

“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

The most high-profile climate denial project FTI is involved in is Energy In Depth (EID), a pro-fracking constellation of websites that spreads industry talking points. Ostensibly a project linked to the Independent Petroleum Association of America, EID — which promotes fracking, attacks climate scientists and environmental activists, and plays up the benefits of fossil fuels — was jointly launched with FTI back in 2009.

The website wasn’t just a project of small and medium-sized independent oil producers. In 2011, DeSmogrevealed that Energy In Depth had the early backing of some of the largest oil companies, including BP, Anadarko, Halliburton, Chevron, Shell, XTO Energy (owned by ExxonMobil), and several other oil companies and trade associations. Without that financial backing from major oil companies, the project “would not be possible,” according to a 2009memo DeSmog found.

In 2019, Huffington Postreported that the Independent Petroleum Association of America spent close to $2 million annually on Energy In Depth. That amounts to roughly afifth of the trade group’s budget.

“We know some of the contracts FTI has with various trade associations,” Davies said. “But the truth is, we don’t know the half of it.”

Earlier this year, DeSmog published a 2015 FTI presentation in which the firm bragged about its deep connections with the oil industry and trumpeted its work on behalf of its fossil fuel clients. FTI’s presentation highlighted its work, through Energy In Depth, at “debunking” peer-reviewed studies that link fracking to water contamination, as well as providing “facts” to media about how methane emissions from oil and gas were in decline.

A screenshot from FTI Consulting’s 2015 presentation.]

Energy In Depth acts as “a public-facing clearinghouse” and a “permanent campaign strategy” for the oil industry, Melissa Aronczyk, a professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, told DeSmog in an email.

“FTI works for oil and gas clients by trying to shut down the conversation about climate-related problems before they happen – or especially, before they become a problem for their clients,” Aronczyk said.

The firm took the lessons learned with Energy In Depth around the world. FTIboasted at an industry conference in Brazil in 2014 that Energy In Depth had the ability “to say, do and write things that individual company employees cannot and should not.”

In another instance that has not previously been reported, FTI gave a presentation at a 2012 industry conference in Canada, in which it shared its experience “generating pro-gas news” in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, and how the firm intended to do the same in Quebec. At the time, the gas industry was facing publicopposition to fracking in the Canadian province, and FTI, via Energy In Depth, wanted to shift public opinion in the industry’s favor. That included proactively creating pro-gas news in the media, as well as a sponsored trip for Quebec farmers to travel to fossil fuel-rich Alberta to learn about how shale gas is produced.

A screenshot of a 2016 Earth Day message from Energy In Depth, a fracking industry project of FTI Consulting and the Independent Petroleum Association of America.]

“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,” Davies said. “They do all manner of strategic communications work to defend the honor of fossil fuel companies and trade associations.”

The House Committee has also sent a letter to a separate PR firm called Story Partners. Established in January 2010 by well-known PR executive Gloria Dittus, Story Partners has also run multiple influence campaigns for the fossil fuel industry in recent years. The firm led the American Petroleum Institute’s Vote for Energy campaign, which sought to equate drilling for oil and gas with jobs. Story Partners also ran campaigns for Venture Global LNG, a Gulf Coast LNG export company. And it also helped Noble Energy defeata ballot measure in Colorado that would have increased setback distances between fracking operations and homes and businesses, a measure that would have encroached upon Noble Energy’s assets.

As it happens, Gloria Dittus previously founded Dittus Communications, which was acquired by FTI in 2005. In 2009, the Energy In Depth website was registered by “FD Dittus Communications,” a unit of FTI, according to the website’s registration.

According to a Story Partners spokesperson, “Gloria Dittus left FTI Consulting in early 2009 after the 2005 sale of Dittus Communications was finalized to Financial Dynamics (FD) and fully integrated into FTI Consulting at the end of 2008. Any Energy in Depth work was outside her tenure and likely launched following her leave from FTI.” Story Partners did not respond to questions from DeSmog about their role running climate disinformation campaigns for fossil fuel companies.

Arena said that FTI is among a small group of “pariah” PR firms that “do not represent the majority of the PR and ad industry, but they are our industry’s biggest reputational liability.”

[twt ca]

"But the bigger point here is that these are deceptive practices that no ethical marketing firm should engage in, for any client. They muddy public understanding and suppress the truth by design and should therefore be repudiated by the PR and ad industry at large,” she added. “The silver lining here is that this moment of reckoning has the potential to change the communications industry for the better.”

Ultimately, FTI’s mission has been “to preserve the reputation of the fossil fuel industry as it has come under pressure around climate change,” Davies said. Referring to FTI’s direct involvement in spreading climate disinformation, he added: “In doing so, you are now part of the effort to hide the truth.”

In a statement to DeSmog, Matthew E. Bashalany, a spokesperson for FTI Consulting, said: “Our company takes the Subcommittee’s request very seriously. We continue to be in regular contact with subcommittee staff as we progress our efforts to be responsive to the chair’s request in a manner consistent with our legal obligations to preserve our clients’ confidentiality and privileges. FTI Consulting is called upon by clients in dozens of industries globally, including those involved in traditional, renewable and alternative energy development, and we are committed to ensuring that all professional services we deliver align with our firmwide position to support action to address climate change.”

It is unclear what will happen next, but the House Committee could subpoena documents or have executives appear before the congressional panel. The August 24 deadline came and went, and now the firm faces a potential subpoena. In an email to DeSmog on August 25, a day after the deadline, a spokesperson for the Committee said: “The Committee has not yet gotten an adequate response from FTI.”

Another spokesperson for the Committee told DeSmog, “stay tuned.”

ref ltr grijalva chair, katie porter

https://naturalresources.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2022.06.12%20Grijalva%20Porter%20letters%20to%20PR%20firms_combined.pdf

AEA ally: Before joining the Institute for Energy Research and the American Energy Alliance, Pyleworked as a lobbyist for the right-wing oil giant Koch Industries, first in-house starting in 2001, and then at the Rhoads Group. In 2008 Pyle became a lobbyist for the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. Previously, Pyle served as policy analyst for Rep. TomDeLay (R-TX), Majority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives and as staff director for the GOP Congressional Western Caucus. Pyle started as a legislative assistant for radical anti-environmentalists Rep. RichardPombo (R-CA) and Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA)

Todd Shepherd is editor of the Delaware Valley Journal. He also covers politics and energy policy for InsideSources.

just sm of nyt

http://web.archive.org/web/20210304025444/https://www.prweek.com/article/1700525/fti-consulting-called-energy-related-comms-efforts

wASHINGTON: FTI Consulting is reportedly under fire for allegedly deceptive advocacy efforts on behalf of energy companies and is facing backlash from some clients as a result.

Former employees have alleged,:{ :(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}::{according to :(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}::{The New York Times:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}:, that FTI created a fake Facebook persona, strategized on how to derail online climate conversations, compiled intelligence on climate advocates and managed campaigns that were purportedly grassroots efforts but were actually funded by energy companies.

In the wake of The New York Times article posted Wednesday, FTI client the Carbon Disclosure Project suspended its relationship with the agency and other clients such as Morningstar and environmental, social and governance company MSCI said they are reviewing FTI’s activities,:{ :(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}::{according to the :(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}:*Financial Times*.

FTI created a fake Facebook user called “Susan” to monitor climate activists. Susan's Facebook friends included one current and one ex-FTI staffer, The New York Times claimed.

The account was created by a staffer in FTI’s strategic communications group on behalf of drilling company Apache Energy, which was attempting to launch a drilling project near a Texas state park, The New York Times reported.

The agency also tracked the efforts of activists and organizers. In one instance, a purported internal FTI document leaked to The New York Times listed groceries and camp supplies being used by the activists. The information was meant to reveal the size of the organizer’s camp near the Apache Energy drilling site.

In addition, the strategic comms group was alleged to have developed a list of techniques intended to influence public discussion of climate issues and energy companies.

A purportedly internal FTI document supplied to the paper listed out a series of tactics including something called “Dog Typing on a Keyboard,” where a poster to an internet discussion forum deliberately uses “very poor grammar, spelling and punctuation and posts frequently to clutter up the thread and make it hard to read.”

“It is important that we say — loud and clear — that FTI Consulting conforms to all industry ethical standards and practices,” said FTI spokesman Matthew Bashalany in a statement emailed to PRWeek.

Bashalany added that FTI’s rules of practice specifically prohibit creating fake social media accounts and state, “We will not impersonate others online, employ fake social media profiles or use online pseudonyms in connection with our work.”

In his statement to The New York Times, Bashalany said the staffer who created the Facebook account was no longer with FTI.

Bashalany also told the NYT that FTI senior managers were unaware of the document detailing the tactics and it was not used to influence the firm's work.

In his statement to PRWeek, Bashalany did not address the Carbon Disclosure Project’s decision to suspend its work with FTI or other client fallout mentioned in the Financial Times article.

In addition to the Facebook profile and the techniques document, The New York Times outlined FTI’s involvement with several advocacy groups including the Texans for Natural Gas, the Arctic Energy Center, and Main Street Investors Coalition. The groups appeared, the Times wrote, to be “efforts to amplify local voices or speak up for regular people.”

The website for Texans for Natural Gas discloses that the group is “supported by three of the state's leading energy companies — Apache Corp, EOG Resources and XTO Energy.” The websites for the Arctic Energy Center and Main Street Investors Coalition appear to have been taken down. However, snapshots of both sites housed on the Internet Wayback Machine archive show both organizations also disclosed their connections to the energy industry.

Also, the NYT wrote that FTI staffers worked on two websites Energy In Depth and Western Wire, which produced pro-industry articles on energy and climate issues, including fracking. Both organizations also disclose their ties to the energy industry on their websites.

“We are transparent about how the programs we work on are sponsored and supported,” Bashalany wrote in an emailed statement to PRWeek.

In October,:{ :(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}::{FTI Consulting’s strategic communications segment posted a Q3 organic revenue drop of 11.7%:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}: to $53 million.:{ :(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}::{In 2019, revenue at FTI grew 9% to $243.1 million:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}:, according to:{ :(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}::{PRWeek’s Agency Business Report.:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:0px 0px"):}:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/climate/fti-consulting.html

How One Firm Drove Influence Campaigns Nationwide for Big Oil

FTI, a global consulting firm, helped design, staff and run organizations and websites funded by energy companies that can appear to represent grass-roots support for fossil-fuel initiatives.

The headquarters of FTI, which has a prominent role in influence campaigns supporting fossil fuels, in Washington.]

By Hiroko Tabuchi

Nov. 11, 2020

In early 2017, the Texans for Natural Gas website went live to urge voters to “thank a roughneck” and support fracking. Around the same time, the Arctic Energy Center ramped up its advocacy for drilling in Alaskan waters and in a vast Arctic wildlife refuge. The next year, the Main Street Investors Coalition warned that climate activism doesn’t help mom-and-pop investors in the stock market.

All three appeared to be separate efforts to amplify local voices or speak up for regular people.

On closer look, however, the groups had something in common: They were part of a network of corporate influence campaigns designed, staffed and at times run by FTI Consulting, which had been hired by some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world to help them promote fossil fuels.

...

An examination of FTI’s work provides an anatomy of the oil industry’s efforts to influence public opinion in the face of increasing political pressure over climate change, an issue likely to grow in prominence, given President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s pledge to pursue bolder climate regulations. The campaigns often obscure the industry’s role, portraying pro-petroleum groups as grass-roots movements.

As part of its services to the industry, FTI monitored environmental activists online, and in one instance an employee created a fake Facebook persona — an imaginary, middle-aged Texas woman with a dog — to help keep tabs on protesters. Former FTI employees say they studied other online influence campaigns and compiled strategies for affecting public discourse. They helped run a campaign that sought a securities rule change, described as protecting the interests of mom-and-pop investors, that aimed to protect oil and gas companies from shareholder pressure to address climate and other concerns....

FTI employees also staffed two news and information sites, Energy In Depth and Western Wire, writing pro-industry articles on fracking, climate lawsuits and other hot-button issues. Former employees familiar with Energy In Depth said the site’s content had direction from Exxon Mobil,one of the major clients of the FTI division that worked on these oil and gas campaigns.

The Energy In Depth website notes its affiliation with an energy trade group [ipaa?] that Exxon is a member of, though not Exxon’s role in directing content that the site published.

This article is based on interviews with a dozen former FTI employees, including former managing directors, a review of hundreds of internal FTI documents and an examination of the digital trail of domain-name registrations and other details left by the creation of the websites. In all, FTI has been involved in the operations of at least 15 current and past influence campaigns promoting fossil-fuel interests in addition to its direct work for oil and gas clients.

Matthew Bashalany, an FTI spokesman, disputed the idea that FTI worked behind the scenes for these groups. [FTI lies in its own defense][1] “We hide behind no one,” he said.

“We summarily reject as false, misleading and defamatorythe general narrative and specific claims,” he said. “We hold ourselves to the highest professional and ethical standards of conduct; when and where shortfalls are identified in this regard, they are addressed appropriately.”

This is just a reminder that the real war in America is over winning hearts and minds. The goal for rich and powerful people and interests is gaining and maintaining wealth and power. The goal for the masses, or the mob as the radical right sees it, is a better deal based on less economic inequality and special interest over public interest influence (i.e., money and power).

This is an all-out war of dark free speech (lies, deceit, irrational emotional manipulation, self-serving motivated reasoning, etc.) against the masses. Unfortunately, dark free speech is more powerful than honest free speech. The playing field is heavily tilted in favor of the rich and powerful as it usually is and has been throughout history.

full txt

fTI, a global consulting firm, helped design, staff and run organizations and websites funded by energy companies that can appear to represent grass-roots support for fossil-fuel initiatives.

All three appeared to be separate efforts to amplify local voices or speak up for regular people.

As part of its services to the industry, FTI monitored environmental activists online, and in one instance an employee created a fake Facebook persona — an imaginary, middle-aged Texas woman with a dog — to help keep tabs on protesters. Former FTI employees say they studied other online influence campaigns and compiled strategies for affecting public discourse. They helped run a campaign that sought a securities rule change, described as protecting the interests of mom-and-pop investors, that aimed to protect oil and gas companies from shareholder pressure to address climate and other concerns.

FTI employees also staffed two news and information sites, Energy In Depth and Western Wire, writing pro-industry articles on fracking, climate lawsuits and other hot-button issues. Former employees familiar with Energy In Depth said the site’s content had direction from Exxon Mobil, one of the major clients of the FTI division that worked on these oil and gas campaigns.

The Energy In Depth website notes its affiliation with an energy trade group that Exxon is a member of, though not Exxon’s role in directing content that the site published.

This article is based on interviews with a dozen former FTI employees, including former managing directors, a review of hundreds of internal FTI documents and an examination of the digital trail of domain-name registrations and other details left by the creation of the websites. In all, FTI has been involved in the operations of at least 15 current and past influence campaigns promoting fossil-fuel interests in addition to its direct work for oil and gas clients.

Matthew Bashalany, an FTI spokesman, disputed the idea that FTI worked behind the scenes for these groups. “We hide behind no one,” he said.

“We summarily reject as false, misleading and defamatory the general narrative and specific claims,” he said. “We hold ourselves to the highest professional and ethical standards of conduct; when and where shortfalls are identified in this regard, they are addressed appropriately.”

An Exxon spokesman, Casey Norton, said he would not comment on the findings because he considered the reporter to be biased against the fossil fuel industry. Kathleen Sgamma, a spokeswoman for the Western Energy Alliance, which funds Western Wire, said her group had been open about its partnership with FTI and about its approach to fracking.

The business of corporate consulting and public relations is vast, and countless companies routinely provide media outreach, public messaging, crisis management and other services. FTI is among them, and it has taken up an important role in helping promote the messages of the fossil fuel industry.

Those messages have sometimes run counter to the scientific consensus that the world must burn less oil and gas to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Texans for Natural Gas, for example, has downplayed the magnitude of emissions of methane, the prime component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas production.

FTI’s work is the latest chapter in a long history of campaigns by the fossil fuel industry, political strategists and public relations professionals to influence climate policy. The industry has faced tough headwinds this year, in particular, as demand for oil and gas has tumbled amid the pandemic.

Founded in 1982 in Annapolis, Md., as a firm that provided expert witnesses and presentations for litigation,FTI has grown into a multinational firm that employs almost 5,000 people in 28 countries. Its business spans a wide range of services, from business consulting to crisis communications.

One of FTI’s largest shareholders, the investment firm BlackRock, won kudos this year for saying it would put environmental sustainability at the center of its investment approach. Main Street Investors, one of FTI’s projects, has spoken out against shareholders who press corporations on climate and other issues — an effort that would seem to be in conflict with BlackRock’s stance.

Mr. Bashalany, the FTI spokesman, said the firm’s work “in no way contravenes — nor is it misaligned with” BlackRock’s statement. BlackRock declined to comment.

‘Do something big’

On a clear day in July, a plane soared over America’s biggest oil and gas field with a banner trailing behind it that read: “Thank you essential oil and gas workers.”

“We wanted to do something big, and what’s bigger than an airplane with a banner?” Elizabeth Caldwell of Texans for Natural Gas said in a statement. The group, which describes itself as a local organization representing “citizens and officeholders, business owners and students” with more than 400,000 supporters, is funded by oil and gas companies includingXTO Energy, an Exxon subsidiary, according to its website.

The statement identifies Ms. Caldwell as “a spokeswoman for thegrass-roots organization.”She is also a director at FTI, according to her LinkedIn page. (There was nothing unusual about an organization receiving corporate support and public relations help, FTI’s spokesman said.)

Acting as Texans for Natural Gas representatives, FTI employees have launched pro-industry petitions, produced videos and reports on the importance of thePermian Basin oil field, and writtenopinion pieces for local newspapers supporting fossil fuels. The site features testimonials from three women, two of whom are represented with stock photos and one with a photo used without permission from the Flickr page of a photographer in the Philippines.

FTI’s Mr. Bashalany acknowledged the use of the stock photos and said adjustments would be made to avoid confusion. He said the supporters and testimonials were real.

Texans for Natural Gas has also shared misleading information about greenhouse gas emissions. In 2018, it issued a study inaccurately claiming that emissions of methane had decreased significantly in the heart of Texas oil country at the height of the fracking boom.

To arrive at that conclusion, scientists say, the report tallied data from the Environmental Protection Agency that the agency itself states does not represent overall emissions: The numbers, which are reported by the energy industry about a limited number of compressor stations and other facilities, do not include emissions from the area’s thousands of wells.The data are “too low by at least a factor of two, and quite likely more,” said Robert W. Howarth, a professor at Cornell University who has researched methane emissions.

FTI stood by the report, calling its findings “on track with broader trends in Texas’ oil fields.”

Texans for Natural Gas is just one campaign run with the help ofFTI employees. Others include: Citizens to Protect PA Jobs, New Mexicans for Economic Prosperity, the Liberty Energy Project and the Arctic Energy Center, according to interviews, internal documents and an examination of the digital trail of domain-name registrations and other details left by the creation of the websites.

Another such organization, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said of FTI in a statement: “We are proud to have them as a contract partner, especially when it comes to direct and transparent media support.”

‘Susan,’ the fake Facebook user

Within FTI, a group called StratCom, short for Strategic Communications, focuses on industry messaging campaigns. In the United States, the group is led by Brian Kennedy, former press secretary for the office of the House minority leader and a former spokesman for Transocean, the drilling contractor involved in the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The StratCom group studied environmental protesters on behalf of the driller Apache Energy.Apache was seeking to drill near Balmorhea State Park in Texas and was concerned that protesters were planning camps similar to those set up to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to two people with direct knowledge of the work.

One FTI document prepared for Apache, dated Jan. 25, 2017, included a link to a list of groceries and camp supplies compiled by organizers, which the document said provided a hint of the proposed camp’s size.

The fictitious Facebook profile — of a Texas woman named Susan McDonald who likes ice cream, the movie “Annie” and her local farmers’ market — was also intended to help FTI keep tabs on activists, former FTI employees said. The “friends” list on the fake profile, which remained present on Facebook as of Wednesday, includes one current and one former FTI employee.

Mr. Bashalany of FTI said, “A Facebook profile was created by a formeremployee to monitor social media anonymously. This was wrong, and it is against our policy.”

Apache declined to comment on the substance of the reporting.

StratCom employees also studied and developed strategies designed to influence public discourse, according to five former employees. An internal document dated Nov. 20, 2015, laid out various techniques. The “Semantic Nitpicker,” the document explained, “asks an endless series of questions.” The “Dog Typing on a Keyboard” uses “very poor grammar, spelling and punctuation and posts frequently to clutter up the thread and make it hard to read.”

A successful effort, the document advised, might use several commenters, “each with an assigned role.”

Mr. Bashalany said senior managers were never aware of the document and it “never informed any activities or approaches to social or digital media engagement of any kind.”

Other campaigns used common techniques, buying social media ads to target people with interests in Alaska and energy and steer them toward the Arctic Energy Center, an industry-funded site that promoted drilling in the waters off Alaska and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Exxon was a backer of the Arctic Energy Center, according to documents and people who worked on the project. An FTI presentation prepared for Exxon, dated July 13, 2016, showed Exxon was scheduled to spend $120,000 over six months across social-media platforms, a draft budget dated the previous month shows.

The Arctic Energy Center’s website has since been taken down.

Climate lawsuit spurs action

In 2018, as New York City moved to sue Exxon Mobil and other fossil fuel companies, claiming that the companies had defrauded shareholders by downplaying climate change, a team within FTI’s StratCom group prepared a pushback.

The task at hand was to produce an article and tweets for Energy In Depth, the pro-industry site. The target:Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, who was under fire at the time for his SUV use.

According to an internal planning calendar, one tweet should show “Bill de Blasio in a giant SUV, wearing shirt that says WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, or maybe a speech bubble with WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS!”

New York lost that court battle.

According to its website, Energy In Depth is a project of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, a trade organization representing hundreds of mostly smaller oil and gas producers. FTI employees familiar with the project said the site’s content had direction from Exxon. FTI employees also wrote much of the content published on Energy In Depth.

In a statement, an Independent Petroleum Association of America senior vice president,Jeff Eshelman, said “support for Energy In Depth comes from a wide segment of industry.”

Mr. Bashalany, the FTI spokesman, said, “Any contention that it is supported in whole or even substantially in part by one company is categorically false.” He said FTI staff members reach out to companies, academics and others for input, “not the other way around.”

Energy In Depth, along with the other industry-funded site that FTI helps run, Western Wire, has been central to the fossil fuel industry’s championing of fracking. Both sites, staffed by FTI writers, have pushed back against the #ExxonKnew campaign waged by environmental activists, which claims that the company knew about climate change for decades yet blocked action to confront it.

‘This is really fishy’

In spring 2018, Nell Minow noticed a tweet from a new group, one she had never heard of, seeming to support small investors. Ms. Minow, vice chair of ValueEdge, a firm that advises investors, and a longtime advocate for mom-and-pop investors, was excited.

“I thought, ‘Great, a shareholder group! I need to know about them,’” she said. “Then I started looking into them and thought, this is really fishy.”

Though the group, Main Street Investors,described itself as representing small investors, it was started by a number of industry organizations, including the National Association of Manufacturers. Main Street has criticized the ability of pension funds and other powerful investors to influence companies’ policies on matters like climate and the environment.

Working for the National Association of Manufacturers, FTI produced a study arguing that activist shareholders tend not to help shareholder value. The report’s five authors were employees of the consulting firm Compass Lexecon, a wholly owned FTI subsidiary. The Main Street Investors website is now offline.

FTI also worked with the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the industry group associated with Energy In Depth, to start DivestmentFacts.com,which warns that divesting from fossil fuels — a growing trend among university endowments and pension funds — could cost those institutions millions of dollars. At least six academic papers published on Divestmentfacts.com were by professors who, in addition to their university jobs, were also working for Compass Lexecon, the FTI subsidiary.

FTI monitored Ms. Minow after she publicly said Main Street Investorswas using “inflammatory language, unsupported assertions, and out-and-out falsehoods” to spread its message. Internal memos show FTI employees compiled reports on her background, noting, among other things, that she was once dubbed “the C.E.O. killer” by Fortune magazine for her record of ousting underperforming executives. FTI also tracked her tweets in a spreadsheet.

FTI’s Mr. Bashalany said that no attempt had been made to hide any of the report authors’ affiliation. He said neither FTI through its Compass Lexecon subsidiary nor its clients “had any influence whatsoever over the form or direction” of the reports. FTI staff conducted “some basic biographic research” of Ms. Minow, he said, “but that’s it — we did nothing else.”

This month, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the oil and gas lobby group, announced it had launched a major initiative to support oil and gas companies looking into adopting environmental, social and governance strategies. In its announcement, the group stressed the importance of efforts that were “authentic and effective.”

Its partner in the endeavor is FTI.

off bs

fTI Consulting Expands Forensic and Litigation Consulting Capabilities in France with Appointment of Senior Managing Director Cyril Naudin

PARIS, May 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN) today announced the appointment of Cyril Naudinas a Senior Managing Director within the Forensic and Litigation Consulting segment, based in Paris.

Mr. Naudin has more than 20 years of experience assisting French and international companies and their legal counsel on strategic forensic and financial crime investigations and compliance matters. He is the most recent addition to the Forensic and Litigation Consulting segment in France, following the December appointment of Karl Payeuras leader of the French practice.

“I am delighted to welcome Cyril to the Forensic and Litigation Consulting team in France,” said Karen Briggs, Head of EMEA Forensic and Litigation Consulting and Technology at FTI Consulting. “With his wealth of investigations and compliance experience, Cyril’s appointment supports our goal of becoming the leading provider of forensic, investigation, compliance and technology services in France and across the EMEA region.”

Mr. Naudin leads and conducts regulatory and internal investigations in France and abroad, dealing with allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption, including electronic data review. He assists international companies and public-sector entities in the assessment or implementation of their compliance programmes, mainly in the context of Sapin II and the ISO 37001 norm requirements: corruption and fraud risk assessment, implementation of specific procedures, set-up of whistleblowing systems, design and implementation of accounting controls, and fraud and corruption-related seminars, including assisting organizations during controls carried out by the French anticorruption agency (Agence Française Anticorruption). Mr. Naudin also provides clients with compliance expertise, including corporate intelligence services, compliance audit and anti-bribery and anti-corruption due diligence in the context of M&A operations.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Naudin led the forensic advisory and compliance practice for France and Africa at a Big Four firm.

Commenting on the appointment, Mr. Naudin said, “I am pleased to join the Investigation & Compliance team of FTI Consulting’s Forensic and Litigation Consulting segment. It’s an exciting time to be part of FTI Consulting in France and I have been impressed by the level of expertise and quality since joining the firm. I look forward to working with Karen, Karl and the team and contributing to the continued growth of our team and the French practice.”

The Forensic and Litigation Consulting segment at FTI Consulting provides multidisciplinary, independent dispute advisory, investigative, data acquisition and analysis, and forensic accounting services to the global business and legal community. The team supports clients facing high-stakes litigation, arbitration, compliance investigations and regulatory scrutiny.

About FTI Consulting

FTI Consulting, Inc. is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organisations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes: financial, legal, operational, political & regulatory, reputational and transactional. With more than 6,900 employees located in 30 countries, FTI Consulting professionals work closely with clients to anticipate, illuminate and overcome complex business challenges and make the most of opportunities. The Company generated $2.78 billion in revenues during fiscal year 2021. In certain jurisdictions, FTI Consulting’s services are provided through distinct legal entities that are separately capitalisedand independently managed. For more information, visit www.fticonsulting.com and connect with us on Twitter (@FTIConsulting), Facebook and LinkedIn.

FTI Consulting, Inc.

555 12^th Street NW

Washington, DC 20004

+1.202.312.9100

Investor Contact:

Mollie Hawkes

+1.617.747.1791

mollie.hawkes@fticonsulting.com

Media Contact:

Matthew Bashalany

+1.617.897.1545

matthew.bashalany@fticonsulting.com

https://www.desmog.com/2015/09/18/naturalgasnoworg-energy-in-depth-tom-shepstone-gasland-study/

no pix doc lnx

The American Sociological Review will publish a study in its October edition linking the documentary film “Gasland” to social movements inspired by it that have arisen in opposition to hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) since the film was released in 2010.

Titled “‘No Fracking Way!’ Documentary Film, Discursive Opportunity, and Local Opposition against Hydraulic Fracturing in the United States, 2010-2013,” the study concludes that “screenings of Gasland in different locations had an effect upon the mobilization of local campaigns against the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing; in turn, those local mobilizations made local policymakers significantly more likely to take action to ban the practice of fracking.”

Fracking industry front groups such as Natural Gas Now and Energy in Depth (EID) responded by attacking the study’s subject: “Gasland.”

In Natural Gas Now’s article titled, “How the Gasland Lies Were Used to Manipulate Public Opinion,” the piece claims to have “discovered that anti-drillers are funding studies to discover how best to fool you.”

“What words, phrases, stories and lies will resonate the best, and move low information types,to oppose fossil fuels,” writes Jim Willis, editor and publisher ofMarcellus Drilling News. “They study it and actually publish their findings (crow about it) for all the world to see!”

Those inspired to ban fracking in their local communities, claims Willis, are simply people who “refuse to think for themselves.” A few paragraphs later, Willis admits he has yet to read the study, before pointing to a few tenuous connections between the study’s funders and their anti-fracking connections.

Natural Gas Now: EID Creation?

Natural Gas Now is “owned and managed by Shepstone Management Company” run by Tom Shepstone, a former Energy In Depth employee. EID is a shale gas industry front group created in 2009 by the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA).

From its first days online, Natural Gas Now has devoted vast bandwidth to “Gasland.” In 2011 — back when Shepstone worked as a campaign manager for EID-Marcellus — Natural Gas Now had a section of its website linking to numerous websites claiming to debunk the Academy Award-nominated film.

Natural Gas Now Energy in Depth Gasland

Image Credit: Web Archive

Many of those were links to Energy in Depth web portals, including an article titled, “No Second Acts for Gasland” and another titled, “Marcellus Landowners Put Gasland Under the Microscope,” with another link to an article written by Shepstone. Natural Gas Now has written dozens of blog posts smearing “Gasland.”

The original Natural Gas Now website is still up as a portal on the Shepstone Management Company website.

Image Credit: Natural Gas Now]

“I’m pleased to say I’m funded by various members of the industry and landowners who understand how incredibly important natural gas development is to rural area like the one I live in,” Shepstone told DeSmog when asked who funds his work. “I don’t disclose my individual donors, of course.”

EID Weighs In

Perhaps unsurprisingly, EID also weighed in on the study, with a headline blaring “Study: Junk Science Film ‘Pivotal’ to Anti-Fracking Movement.” The article compared the anti-fracking movement to the anti-vaccine movement.

“The bottom line is that this new study finds that the anti-fracking movement is based on a fraud – on a flaming faucet and hose that had absolutely nothing to do with fracking and everything to do with spreading false information to incite fear in the public,” wrote EID‘s Katie Brown, a former spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), a climate change denier.

“This this is not unlike what we’ve seen with the anti-vaccine movement, which was based solely on one dubious study that was retracted after it received so much criticism. The only difference here is that anti-fracking activists are still celebrating Gasland as their Bible!”

The industry-funded pro-fracking attack dogs, clearly, are again on the loose.

new

https://www.huffpost.com/topic/fti-consulting

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/climate-denial-energy-in-depth_n_5df7eff6e4b0ae01a1e59371

no lnx many

eNVIRONMENT

Fossil Fuel Giants Claim To Support Climate Science, Yet Still Fund Denial

Fourteen oil and gas companies are funding a website that attacks scientists and undermines their work.

Paul D. Thacker

Dec. 18, 2019,

overtime to show that

our climate commitment is

Most energy companies now acknowledge that burning fossil fuels is warming the planet. And yet many continue to fund disinformation about industry’s role in climate change and its harm to human health.

In the latest example, documents and recordings reviewed by HuffPost show that the Independent Petroleum Association of America has spent almost $2 million a year for the last two years on Energy In Depth, a “research, education and public outreach campaign” that regularly attacks scientists whose research is critical of industry. The campaign has received financial backing from 14 different oil and gas companies including Shell, Occidental Petroleum, BP, Chevron and Halliburton.

These revelations come as world leaders adjourn the COP25 in Madrid, an international summit held to discuss detailed ways to address the rapidly warming planet. In a recent review, scientists writing for The Lancet stated that climate change will affect the health of every child born today as populations face weather extremes, food and water insecurity and changing patterns of infectious disease. “The only solution is to get rid of fossil fuels in power production, industry and transportation,” Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, said upon releasing the report.

Announcing Energy in Depth in a 2009press release now removed from its website, the Independent Petroleum Association of America described EID as a campaign to combat new environmental regulations, especially on hydraulic fracturing. EID’s website includes fact sheets, videos and analysis, and promises to clearly explain oil and gas development while “straightening out the myths you may have heard.”

Although it’s not apparent from the EID website, many of the site’s writers are employees ofFTI Consulting, a global consulting firm that has come under scrutiny for its work for oil and gas companies, Monsanto, Delta Air Lines and the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a front group created to stop universal health care. The documents reviewed by HuffPost provide further insight into the specific funders of EID and how FTI Consulting helps companies burnish their images.

At a 2014 oil and gas conference in Brazil, FTI explained how Energy in Depth helped generate and guide media “behind the scenes,” influencing hundreds of articles and opinion pieces. Most importantly, FTI claimed that the site and its surrogates had the ability “to say, do and write things that individual company employees cannot and should not.”

At the IPAA’s 2017 retreat, an employee told members that the site is “a bunch of companies that have come together to fight some of this fake news that’s out there about our industry.” An attendee recorded the session and provided it to HuffPost.

“EID has now grown into what many consider the industry’s lead research and rapid response platform,” states an IPAA report presented at a June 2019 board of directors meeting. The report adds that EID helps beat back attempts to stop fossil fuel extraction and addresses research that finds fracking harmful.

EID has posted several pages attacking the research of Harvard scholars Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran, calling their published study that showed Exxon Mobil misled the public on the dangers of climate change “incomplete” and “activist.” In another example, EID points to Exxon Mobil-funded research to undermine the scholars’ studies.

“This EID case demonstrates that although fossil fuel companies now claim to support climate action, they continue to misrepresent scientific work in order to protect profits and protect themselves from liability or responsibility,” said Supran, a research fellow studying the history of science.

“When science threatens their interest, they attack or attempt to undermine it,” said Oreskes, a professor of history of science. “And when they can’t do that, they attempt to discredit the scientists who produced it.”

“Although fossil fuel companies now claim to support climate action, they continue to misrepresent scientific work in order to protect profits and protect themselves from liability or responsibility.”

- Geoffrey Supran, Harvard research fellow

On EID’s website, Rebecca Simons, field director for Energy In Depth-Mountain States, excoriated Lisa McKenzie, an assistant professor in the department of environmental and occupational health at the University of Colorado whose published studies find air pollution caused by fracking to be harmful to humans. In a Denver Post op-ed, Simons dismissed McKenzie’s research, writing that it allows “activists” to argue that “energy production is somehow a pernicious threat to public health.” According to her LinkedIn page, Simons left FTI Consulting this year to join Encana, one of the energy firms that helped start EID.

“They attack anyone without using evidence,” said McKenzie. “They respond sometimes before they could even have read a study.” Earlier this month, public health scholars published a perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine noting that fracking is linked to water contamination, air pollution, radiation releases and ecosystem damage.

Jeff Eshelman, senior vice president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America and founder of EID, said in an interview that he was not familiar with the academics whom EID has criticized, but emphasized that America now has the cleanest air in 20 years thanks to natural gas.

“Since 1929, IPAA’s mission has been to tell the truth about the importance of America’s natural gas and oil resources to consumers and policy makers,” said Eshelman. “We are a 90-year-old advocacy association. That’s quite obvious and transparent.”

Several of the fossil fuel companies behind Energy In Depth have made statements avowing the science on climate change and the need to take action.

“Burning fossil fuels is the primary contributor to CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere,” states BP in a handout on climate change.

“The world needs to take urgent action to tackle climate change,” Shell states on its website. “Our ambition is to make sure the energy we sell is in tune with society as it moves towards that goal.”

HuffPost contacted the oil and gas companies that funded EID and asked them to explain their support for a group that attacks researchers working on climate change. Shell, BP and Chevron were asked to explain why they support such actions while simultaneously embracing the science on climate change.

“Your questions are better addressed to EID or IPAA,” said Ashley Alemayehu, a spokesperson for Exxon Mobil, the parent company of XTO Energy.

“BP has not provided funding or been a member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) since January 2014,” wrote BP spokesperson Jason Ryan.

The other companies did not respond.

Eshelman told HuffPost that while his organization runs the EID website, he hired FTI Consulting to support it.In the past, FTI Consulting worked on behalf of several companies to defeat fracking regulations in Europe. Earlier this year, a member of the European Parliament complained about potential violations of lobbying transparency after FTI sent mailers to members of Parliament promising to donate 50 euros to UNICEF for answering a “perception audit” and agreeing to a meeting with FTI. FTI sent the letters on behalf of Eurogas, an association for Europe’s gas industry. And over the summer, a columnist at The Guardian referenced dozens of pages of internal court documents that pointed toFTI as part of Monsanto’s plan to destroy the columnist’s reputation.

“We will have to refer you to IPAA for any comment on IPAA or EID,” said FTI spokesperson Matthew E. Bashalany. He added that FTI does not comment on clients, per company policy.

While most Americans aren’t familiar with IPAA, the organization has close ties to the Trump administration, which denies much of the science on climate change. Shortly after Donald Trump took office, the IPAA celebrated when he picked the group’s former attorney David Bernhardt for the No. 2 spot at the Department of the Interior.

“We know him very well, and we have direct access to him, have conversations with him about issues ranging from federal land access to endangered species, to a lot of issues,” the IPAA’s political director told a group of gathered industry representatives at the time, according to a secret recording of an IPAA meeting provided to the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Trump recently appointed Bernhardt as secretary of the Interior Department, and the IPAA has cultivated other powerful Trump appointees. A flyer for the IPAA’s annual conference last month listed two Trump officials as speakers: Larry A. Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, and Andrew Wheeler, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“All of this — both the attacks themselves and individual companies’ efforts to conceal their involvement — tells me the industry is scared,” said Ben Franta, a Stanford graduate student whom EID targeted for noting that the fossil fuel industry has a history of hiding what it knows about climate change. “It’s scared of the truth. And it should be, because the truth doesn’t look good for the fossil fuel industry.”

This story has been updated with comment from a BP spokesperson.

lnx some

...t the IPAA’s 2017 retreat, an employee told members that the site is “a bunch of companies that have come together to fight some of this fake news that’s out there about our industry.” An attendee recorded the session and provided it to HuffPost.

...on EID’s website, Rebecca Simons, field director for Energy In Depth-Mountain States, excoriated Lisa McKenzie, an assistant professor in the department of environmental and occupational health at the University of Colorado whose published studies find air pollution caused by fracking to be harmful to humans. In a Denver Post op-ed, Simons dismissed McKenzie’s research, writing that it allows “activists” to argue that “energy production is somehow a pernicious threat to public health.” According to her LinkedIn page, Simons left FTI Consulting this year to join Encana, one of the energy firms that helped start EID.

Jeff Eshelman, senior vice president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America and founder of EID, said in an interview that he was not familiar with the academics whom EID has criticized, but emphasized that America now has the cleanest air in 20 years thanks to natural gas.

Several of the fossil fuel companies behind Energy In Depth have made statements avowing the science on climate change and the need to take action.

“Burning fossil fuels is the primary contributor to CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere,” states BP in a handout on climate change.

“Your questions are better addressed to EID or IPAA,” said Ashley Alemayehu, a spokesperson for Exxon Mobil, the parent company of XTO Energy....

"BP has not provided funding or been a member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) since January 2014,” wrote BP spokesperson Jason Ryan.

The other companies did not respond.

Eshelman told HuffPost that while his organization runs the EID website, he hired FTI Consulting to support it. In the past, FTI Consulting worked on behalf of several companies to defeat fracking regulations in Europe. Earlier this year, a member of the European Parliament complained about potential violations of lobbying transparency after FTI sent mailers to members of Parliament promising to donate 50 euros to UNICEF for answering a “perception audit” and agreeing to a meeting with FTI. FTI sent the letters on behalf of Eurogas, an association for Europe’s gas industry. And over the summer, a columnist at The Guardian referenced dozens of pages of internal court documents that pointed to FTI as part of Monsanto’s plan to destroy the columnist’s reputation.

“We will have to refer you to IPAA for any comment on IPAA or EID,” said FTI spokesperson Matthew E. Bashalany. He added that FTI does not comment on clients, per company policy.

https://www.desmog.com/fti-consulting/

background

FTI Consulting (NYSE: FCN) 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.”1

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.”2

FTI maintains an “Environmental Solutions Group” which focuses on “the resolution of complex contamination, toxic tort, products liability and insurance disputes.”3

For the mining industry, they offer “a comprehensive range of corporate finance, economic consulting and strategic communications services.”4

FTI Consulting is a public company. It began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FCN in 2001. The group was initially known as Forensic Technologies International before changing its name to FTI Consulting in 1998, and initially went public under the name Forensic Technologies International (ticker symbol FTIC) in 1996.5

The group was founded in 1982 by Dan Luczak and Joseph Reynolds in Annapolis, Md. Its initial role would include providing courtroom evidence and computer models to help staff and jury members assess cases. In 1995, the company provided courtroom graphics and jury consultation to the O.J. Simpson trial.6

Energy In Depth

FTI Consulting (and Dittus Communications) helped launch the Energy In Depth campaign on behalf of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), DeSmog found. One key element of the campaign was supporting unconventional drilling (“fracking”) for natural gas in the Marcellus region in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and neighboring states.7

DeSmog obtained a leaked memo in 2011 that revealed Energy In Depth “would not be possible without the early financial commitments” of major oil and gas interests including BP, Halliburton, Chevron, Shell, XTO Energy (now owned by ExxonMobil), and several other large oil and gas companies.8

In a October 2014 “Technical Paper,” FTI Consulting outlined how it teamed up with the IPAA in 2009 to launch the program, which it describes as “a research, education and rapid response platform specifically focused on telling the story of unconventionals development.”9

“Through our experience managing aboveground risks in the United States and around the world, we have learned that no matter what challenge a company, coalition or organization is facing – whether it is opposition to hydraulic fracking, widespread deception about oil sands and pipelines, or lack of awareness on LNG exports – all risks can be managed and eventually neutralized if addressed early on and with the right set of tools and tactics,” the paper concludes.”10

In addition to EID, FTI Consulting is behind other “shale gas advocacy initiatives” including the Energy Resource Information Centre in Australia, and Shale Gas Europe.11

[doc]

...

note that many of FTI‘s communications efforts no longer appear to be in operation, and websites have closed down for many of these groups.13

Producers for American Crude Oil Exports (PACE)

PACE was formed in October 2014 with the stated mission of lifting the 1975 ban on crude oil exports from the United States. With the ban lifted, the PACE website is no longer updated but “remain accessible to the public for reference purposes only.”14

PACE member companies included:

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

Apache Corporation

Chesapeake Energy Corporation

Concho Resources, Inc.

ConocoPhillips Company

Devon Energy Corporation

Encana Corporation

EOG Resources, Inc.

EP Energy Corporation

Hess Corporation

Laredo Petroleum, Inc.

Marathon Oil Corporation

Noble Energy, Inc.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation

Pioneer Natural Resources Company

WPX Energy, Inc.

Center for Liquified Natural Gas (CLNG)

The Center for Liquefied Natural Gas (CLNG) is a 501(c)(6) organization formed in 2007 with ties to the American Petroleum Institute and Natural Gas Supply Association (listed as the registrant for the CLNG website). It describes itself as “a committee of the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA).”15

According to an informational brochure, “The Center for Liquefied Natural Gas (CLNG) advocates for public policies that advance the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the United States, and its export internationally.”16

According to its website, CLNG‘s Members have included:

Member 2017 2018 2019

Anadarko Y Y

BP Y Y Y

Cheniere Y Y

Chevron Y Y Y

Constellation Y Y

Dominion Y Y Y

ENGIE Y Y

ExxonMobil Y Y Y

Freeport LNG Y Y Y

Golden Pass LNG Y Y Y

Jordan Cove LNG Y Y Y

Mitsubishi Corporation Y Y Y

NextDecade Y

Shell Y Y Y

TOTAL Y Y Y

Marcellus Shale Coalition

FTI Consulting is listed as an “Associate Member” of the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MCS), a group founded in 2008 with the stated goal of providing “in-depth information to policymakers, regulators, media and other public stakeholders on the positive effects responsible natural gas production is having on families, businesses, and communities across the region.”17 18

Shale Resource Centre Canada

...

according to an archive of the group’s now-defunct website, Shale Gas Europe was managed by FTI Consulting:20

“The shale gas debate in Europe is extremely important for the future of our energy supply. It is therefore essential that the debate is balanced, informative and engaging to allow the public to come to their own conclusions on the issue.

As a result, the industry decided to set-up a dedicated resource centre that is open to anyone who wants to understand more about shale gas, tight gas and coalbed methane. The secretariat of Shale Gas Europe is managed by FTI Consulting.

Launched in 2012, this platform will bring together industry, experts and academics to collect, share and communicate the interesting science and technology involved in shale gas exploration. It will also show the facts about the potential of responsibly developing Europe’s onshore energy reserves of shale gas.”

Energy Resource Information Centre (Australia)

According to an archive of the group’s now-defunct website, the Energy Resource Information Centre “promotes the natural gas industry and provides a fact based, evidence led source of information about natural gas exploration and development.”21

“We are funded by the natural gas industry, and make no secret of that fact.

“Our membership includes major exploration and production companies, along with companies that support the responsible development of Australia’s natural gas industry.

With support from industry participants, the Energy Resource Information Centre builds on the deep expertise of the US-based Energy In Depth campaign, the Shale Resource Centre Canada, and Shale Gas Europe.”

The website notes that “Resourcing for the Centre is provided by FTI Consulting, a global business advisory company.”

Western Wire & Exxon

Matt Dempsey, a strategist for FTI Consulting who works with Energy In Depth, was recorded attempting to get an interview for Western Wire with Marco Simons, general counsel for EarthRights International. EarthRights was representing the city and county of Boulder and the County of San Miguel in a lawsuit the communities filed in 2018 seeking climate damages from Exxon.22

Earthrights recorded and released the audio, in which Dempsey confirmed that the news site Western Wire was staffed primarily with representatives from FTI Consulting, and that FTI ran the site on a contract from the Western Energy Alliance.23

When asked if the Western Energy Alliance included membership from Exxon, and if they were acting in any way as representatives of Exxon (in which case Simons would be unable to conduct the interview), both Dempsey and fellow FTI strategist Michael Sandoval refused to answer directly.24

The Western Wire describes itself as “the go-to source for news, commentary and analysis on pro-growth, pro-development policies across the West.”25

“Western Wire is a project of Western Energy Alliance, a non-profit regional oil and natural gas association based in Denver, Colo., and active across 13 states. The Alliance works closely with stakeholders in state and local government; academia; ranching; other industries; think tanks; and sportsmen’s, civic, business, issue advocacy and other groups. These allies share an interest in a vibrant western economy with robust job creation”

Stance on Climate Change

2019

FTI Consulting’s Energy In Depth campaign has consistently advocated for natural gas as a solution to reduce carbon emissions. EID maintains its own subdomain, Energy In Depth Climate and Environment (eidclimate.org), promoting the “Climate Benefits of Natural Gas”:26

“You’ve probably heard environmental activists attack hydraulic fracturing (fracking) because they say it worsens climate change. But like so much of the anti-fossil fuel “Keep It In the Ground” campaign, what they are saying has no basis in science or evidence.”

[…]

“By unlocking an abundant and low-cost fuel like natural gas, the fracking revolution has been a clear winner for the economy, our national security, and the climate.”

Funding

[Annual Reports]

Key People

Board of Directors

Name 2005 2008 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2018 Description

Gerard E. Holthaus Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of FTI Consulting, Inc. and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of WillScot Corporation

Brenda J. Bacon Y Y Y Y Y Y Y President and Chief Executive Officer of Brandywine Senior Living LLC

Claudio Costamagna Y Y Y Y Y Chairman of CC e Soci S.r.l.

Sir Vernon Ellis Y Y Y Y Y Former Chair of the Board of Trustees of the British Council

Nicholas C. Fanandakis Y Y Y Y Executive Vice President of DowDuPont, Inc.

Steven H. Gunby Y Y Y Y President and Chief Executive Officer

Mark S. Bartlett Y Y Y Former Partner at Ernst & Young, LLP

Laureen E. Seeger Y Y Chief Legal Officer of the American Express Company

James W. Crownover Y Y Y Y Y Y Former Head of McKinsey and Company’s Southwest Practice and Co-Head of McKinsey Worldwide Energy Practice

Marc L. Holtzman Y Y Y Former Chairman of Meridian Capital (HK) Limited

Denis J. Callaghan Y Y Y Y Y Retired Former Director of North American Equity Research for Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown

Dennis J. Shaughnessy Y Y Y Y Chairman of the Board

George P. Stamas Y Y Y Y Partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Jack B. Dunn, IV Y Y Y Y President and Chief Executive Officer

Henrique de Campos Meirelles Y Managing Partner and President of Henrique Meirelles e Associados

Mark H. Berey Y Y Y President of MHB Ventures LLC

Matthew F. McHugh Y Y Y Retired Former Nine-Term United States Congressman

Gary C. Wendt Y Former CEO of Conseco Inc. and Chairman and CEO of GE Capital Services

James A. Flick, Jr. Y President and Chief Executive Officer, Winnow, Inc.

Peter F. O’Malley Y Of Counsel, O’Malley, Miles, Nylen & Gilmore

Business/Corporate Leadership/”Corporate Professionals”

Name 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Description

Steven H. Gunby Y Y Y Y Y Y President and Chief Executive Officer

Holly Paul Y Y Y Y Y Chief Human Resources Officer

Paul Linton Y Y Y Y Y Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer

Curtis Lu Y Y Y Y General Counsel

Jeffrey S. Amling Y Y Y Y Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Business Development

Matthew Pachman Y Y Y Y Vice President−Chief Risk and Compliance Officer

Ajay Sabherwal Y Y Y Chief Financial Officer

Ronald Reno Y Y Y Y Vice President and Corporate Treasurer

John A. MacColl Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Senior Managing Director, Client Engagement and Conflict Resolution

Carlyn R. Taylor Y Y Global Segment Co-Leader, Corporate Finance & Restructuring and FTI Consulting Industry Initiative Leader

Charles D. Overstreet Y Y Global Practice Leader, Health Solutions

Heather Klink Y Y Deputy General Counsel

Joanne Catanese Y Y Associate General Counsel and Secretary

John Klick Y Y Senior Vice President

Kevin Hewitt Y Y Chairman of Europe, Middle East & Africa

Leslie H. Moeller Y Y Chairman of North and South America

Mark McCall Y Y Global Segment Leader, Strategic Communications

Michael C. Eisenband Y Y Global Segment Co-Leader, Corporate Finance & Restructuring

Mollie Hawkes Y Y Managing Director, Investor Relations and Communications

Paul S. Ficca Y Y Global Segment Leader, Forensic and Litigation Consulting

Sophie Ross Y Y Global Segment Leader, Technology

Brendan J. Keating Y Chief Accounting Officer and Controller

Catherine M. Freeman Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Senior Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer

Chris Osborne Y Global Segment Leader, Economic Consulting

Joanne F. Catanese Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Associate General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Adam S. Bendell Y Y Y Y Chief Innovation Officer

David M. Johnson Y Chief Financial Officer

Heather A. Klink Y Acting General Counsel

David G. Bannister Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Executive Vice President and Chairman of the North America Region

Eric B. Miller Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer

Roger D. Carlile Y Y Y Y Y Y Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Jack B. Dunn, IV Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y President and Chief Executive Officer

Denis J. Callaghan Y Retired Former Director of North American Equity Research for Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown

Dennis J. Shaughnessy Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Chairman of the Board

Liz Nickles Y Y Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

Dominic DiNapoli Y Y Y Y Y Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Curt A. H. Jeschke, Jr. Y Y Y Y Vice President – Internal Audit

Jorge A. Celaya Y Y Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Declan M. Kelly Y Executive Vice President and Chief Integration Officer

Charles Boryenace Y Y Vice President and Controller

Cheryl J. Meeks Y Y Assistant Secretary

Greg Wills Y Y Chief Information Officer

Theodore I. Pincus Y Y Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Dianne R. Sagner Y Vice President and General Counsel

Sara Lacombe Y Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Energy In Depth & Related Entities

Some notable indivduals below with ties to FTI Consulting’s pro-oil and fracking initiatives:

Energy In Depth & Related Entities

Some notable indivduals below with ties to FTI Consulting’s pro-oil and fracking initiatives:

Mike Catanzaro — Former managing director.

Mike Catanzaro previously worked as a managing director at FTI Consulting before going to work as a top energy policy aide in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2018.27

Steve Everley — Managing Director of Strategic Communications.28

Everley is Senior Advisor to Energy In Depth and current spokesman for Texans for Natural Gas. He was also energy policy advisor to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich at the American Enterprise Institute and American Solutions.29

Dave Quast — Senior Director of Strategic Communications.30

Dave Quast is a California director of Energy In Depth. Quast formerly worked as director of public affairs at the Cato Institute.31

Steve Wright — Hired by FTI Consulting in Australia and worked as director of the pro-fracking Energy Resource Information Center.32 33

Katie Brown — Director of Strategic Communications.

Katie Brown joined FTI Consulting in 2013, and as of 2015, she was a spokesperson for Energy In Depth. According to her profile in a 2015 FTI Consulting presentation to the oil industry, “in addition to a similar role played for the Shale Resource Centre (Canada’s Energy In Depth program). She was also a spokesperson and primary writer for Oil Sands Fact Check, an education campaign on the Keystone XL pipeline.” She previously served on staff for the Republican minority at the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.34

Chris Tucker — Managing director, Strategic Communications.

Tucker was listed as team lead for Energy In Depth, according to a 2013 profile, which notes “His primary areas of focus and expertise reside in the oil, natural gas and mining sectors.” Tucker was a communications and energy advisor to U.S. Rep. John Peterson (Pa.) and Minority Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) and also communications director to the House Energy Action Team.35

Jim Willis — Previously described as a “special correspondent” for Energy In Depth Marcellus (EID-M). DeSmog has reported that Willis runs Marcellus Drilling News (MDN), a website with commentary that “frequently carries overtones of religious and racial animus.”36 37

Other People

Note that FTI Consulting lists over 1,100 experts and staff on its website. View the attached spreadsheet for an analysis and complete listing of FTI Consulting experts and leadership (.xlsx) as of September 2019.

Actions

September 27, 2021

FTI Consulting senior managing director and head of public affairs Alex Deane appeared on a GB News program with Nigel Farage where he criticized the UK’s efforts to curb climate change prior to the COP26 summit, PRWeek reported.38

“Even if we closed down UK PLC, the increase from what we see from our friends in China would more than swallow it up,” Deane commented, emphasizing he was speaking in a personal capacity.

He added:

“What we do in this country – the hair-shirt attitude of ‘take your boiler out’, ‘get a new car’, the idea that we should be beating up people for not being quite green enough when the world’s biggest polluters are exempt from the Paris accords – for me, that’s for the birds.”

Later in the program, Deane commented on the BBC licence fee:

“We shouldn’t just scrap the licence fee, we should scrap the BBC. [It] is no longer fit for purpose.”

November 11, 2020

The New York Times, in an article based on interviews with former FTI employees, internal FTI documents, and website registration information, found that FTI consulting had been involved in the operations of “at least 15 current and past influence campaigns promoting fossil-fuel interests in addition to its direct work for oil and gas clients.”39

Hiroko Tabuchi wrote in the New York Times article that ExxonMobil may have had a larger role than previously advertised in FTI‘s Energy In Depth campaign:40

“Former employees familiar with Energy In Depth said the site’s content had direction from Exxon Mobil, one of the major clients of the FTI division that worked on these oil and gas campaigns,” Tabuchi wrote. “The Energy In Depth website notes its affiliation with an energy trade group that Exxon is a member of, though not Exxon’s role in directing content that the site published.”

While on the surface, FTI‘s campaigns appeared to “amplify local voices or speak up for regular people,” on closer investigation, groups “were part of a network of corporate influence campaigns designed, staffed and at times run by FTI Consulting, which had been hired by some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world to help them promote fossil fuels.”

These included a 2018 push by FTI‘s project, the Main Street Investors Coalition warning “that climate activism doesn’t help mom-and-pop investors in the stock market” and campaigns by Texans for Natural Gas and the Arctic Energy Center in 2017 to support fracking and advocate for on-shore and offshore drilling in Alaska.

A spokesman for FTI claimed the group had always been transparent, commenting: “We hide behind no one.” An Exxon spokesman would not comment, claiming the New York Times reporter was biased against the fossil fuel industry.

Texans for Natural Gas describes itself as a local organization representing “citizens and officeholders, business owners and students” and is funded by oil and gas companies including Exxon subsidiary XTO Energy. Elizabeth Caldwell, listed as a “a spokeswoman for the grass-roots organization,” is also a director at FTI.

“Acting as Texans for Natural Gas representatives, FTI employees have launched pro-industry petitions, produced videos and reports on the importance of the Permian Basin oil field, and written opinion pieces for local newspapers supporting fossil fuels. The site features testimonials from three women, two of whom are represented with stock photos and one with a photo used without permission from the Flickr page of a photographer in the Philippines,” Tabuchi reported. She added, “Texans for Natural Gas has also shared misleading information about greenhouse gas emissions. In 2018, it issued a study inaccurately claiming that emissions of methane had decreased significantly in the heart of Texas oil country at the height of the fracking boom.”

Other campaigns FTI was behind included: 41

Citizens to Protect PA Jobs

New Mexicans for Economic Prosperity

The Liberty Energy Project

The Arctic Energy Center

The Marcellus Shale Coalition

Tabuchi also uncovered how an FTI group called StratCom, short for Strategic Communications, had tracked the activities of environmental protesters on behalf of Apache Energy, who was seeking to drill near Balmorhea State Park in Texas.

As part of those efforts, FTI also created a fake Facebook profile in the name of “Susan McDonald” to keep track of protestors. The account “was also intended to help FTI keep tabs on activists, former FTI employees said.” While its friends list included one current and one former FTI employee.

FTI spokesman Matthew Bashalany said, “A Facebook profile was created by a former employee to monitor social media anonymously. This was wrong, and it is against our policy.”

Former StratCom employees also said the group had used strategies to influence public discourse. For example, an internal document dated November 20, 2015 laid out possible roles for communicators such as “The “Semantic Nitpicker,” as the document explained, who “asks an endless series of questions.” The “Dog Typing on a Keyboard” uses “very poor grammar, spelling and punctuation and posts frequently to clutter up the thread and make it hard to read.”

Bashalany claimed senior managers were never aware of the document and it “never informed any activities or approaches to social or digital media engagement of any kind.”

Other strategies they employed included purchasing targeted social media ads leading to the since-shut-down Arctic Energy Center website that promoted drilling in Alaskan waters and in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge. Exxon was reportedly a backer of the Center. A 2016 FTI presentation included a draft budget showing Exxon scheduled to contribute $120,000 over six months on social media platforms.

The New York Times also detailed FTI‘s involvement in Main Street Investors, a group claiming to represent small investors and created by industry groups including the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

FTI worked with NAM on a study, written by employees of FTI‘s wholly owned subsidiary Compass Lexecon, that argued against environmental shareholder resolutions.

FTI also worked with the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) to form DivestmentFacts.com, a website fighting against divestment from fossil fuels. Several papers published on the website were written by professors who also worked for Compass Lexecon.

December 24, 2019

A HuffPost investigation revealed that FTI Consulting was hired by Energy in Depth (EID) to implement a disinformation campaign to discredit scientists who exposed the environmental consequences of fossil fuel extraction and consumption.42

EID received approximately $2 million per year in 2018 and 2019 from the Independent Petroleum Association of America, an industry trade organization that has received support from oil giants such as BP, Shell, Chevron, and Halliburton. The money was delivered in spite of many of IPAA’s member organizations publicly calling for action on climate change.43

EID employed FTI consultants to engage in a campaign of “research, education and public outreach” to dispute factual claims made by scientists and environmentalists, such as dismissing the effects of hydraulic fracturing on water quality.44

September 2019

FTI Consulting was reportedly responsible for planting a freelance reporter, Sylvie Barak, at a trial of Monsanto alleging that the company’s pesticide glyphosate causes cancer. Reporters told HuffPost that Barak had told others that she was a freelancer for the BBC.45

One reporter, speaking on the condition of anonymity with HuffPost, discussed events that happened at a party where Barak had invited other journalists who were covering the trial:

“[Barak] would make suggestions about interesting parts of the testimony and then go on and on about certain points of testimony to try and get it into stories, and it was always bad for the plaintiffs.”

She suggested that Barak seemed to be fishing for reporters’ views on Monsanto and the trial, HuffPost reported. When reporters looked into Barak’s background, they found on LinkedIn that she worked for FTI Consulting—among whose clients included Monsanto. When the inquiring reporter contacted Bayer, Monsanto’s parent company (and also a FTI client), Barack’s LinkedIn changed to describe her as a freelancer.

“Monsanto has also previously employed shadowy networks of consultants, PR firms, and front groups to spy on and influence reporters. And all of it appears to be part of a pattern at the company of using a variety of tactics to intimidate, mislead and discredit journalists and critics,” HuffPost noted.

January 2019

Matt Dempsey was one of two strategists employed by FTI Consulting who “posed as journalists in an attempt to interview an attorney representing Colorado communities that are suing Exxon for climate change-related damages,” Climate Liability News reported.46

Dempsey and Michael Sandoval reportedly called Marco Simons, general counsel for EarthRights International, who was representing Colorado communities in a lawsuit seeking damages from Exxon. Their action “potentially runs afoul of ethics rules for both the legal and public relations industries, and appeared to be a fishing expedition for information about Simons’ clients in that suit.”

In the call, recorded and released by EarthRights, Sandoval confirmed that Western Wire is run by FTI Consulting staff and run by FTI under a contract. According to Climate Liability News, “the two men pressed for an interview even though Simons quickly said he couldn’t talk to them if they represented Exxon in any way. When they evaded the question, Simons refused to comment.”

Simons pressed the consultants about Exxon’s representation on the board of WEA. Simons asked if Exxon is a Western Energy Alliance member, to which Sandoval responded: “I’m not privy to the membership of, of the Western Energy Alliance.”

Simon pressed: “OK, well it does include an executive from Exxon on its board, right?” — he was referring to Greg Pulliam , a public and government affairs manager for XTO Energy and Exxon employee.

“Yes,” Sandoval said.

“So, I’m just assuming that Exxon’s one of its members,” Simon said. “I guess I’m just concerned from a conflicts perspective if you’re being funded by an organization that you don’t know their members, how do you, I guess, ensure … lack of conflicts from a journalistic integrity point of view?”

Following this interchange, Sandoval put Matt Dempsey on the line to answer further questions. Dempsey asked Sandoval if he was inquiring on Exxon’s membership as a lawyer representing Boulder, or for his personal information:

“We’re ready to proceed on an interview about the case, but if this is something else, we need to know that now,” said Dempsey, adding that he contacted Simons at the request of the City of Boulder.

Simons reiterated his position.

“What I’m saying is that if you’re representatives of Exxon in any fashion, I can’t talk to you about the litigation as an ethical matter because Exxon is represented by counsel, and I can only talk to their counsel,” Simons said.

Dempsey did not deny representing Exxon and instead questioned Simons’ statement.

“You say you have a conflict in speaking with Western Wire, but that you do not have a conflict in speaking with InsideClimate News, or with Climate Liability News,” Dempsey said.

Simons again said he had a conflict with Western Wire only if the organization was representing Exxon in any way, something neither Dempsey nor Sandoval denied.

Dempsey persisted in the same line of questioning and Simons repeatedly said he could not comment unless the two could confirm they were not Exxon representatives (which they did not).

“I cannot comment about this litigation unless you can tell me that you are not representatives in any way of Exxon,” Simons said.

Dempsey declined to answer and then ended the phone call.

Hear the original audio below:47[link]

may 2015

FTI presented to the Tennesse Oil and Gas Association on “The American Shale Boom.” The presentation, made by Energy In Depth spokesperson Katie Brown, outlined how FTI was “redefining communications support” for shale gas through its initiatives like Energy in Depth and related “informational” websites and groups such as the Shale Resource Center of Canada, Energy Resource Information Centre in Australia, and Shale Gas Europe among others.48

FTI presented Energy In Depth as “Widely regarded as the industry’s lead research and education initiative on all issues relating to onshore oil and gas development.”49

Some of the successes FTI listed for Energy In Depth included a two-part initiative “Debunking Gasland,” in which it worked to counter the award-winning 2010 documentary exposing issues with the fracking industry in the U.S. That initiative included launching the website “Truthland” by EID.50

Another success listed by FTI is the systematic discrediting of the Duke Methane Studies, in which EID promoted papers suggesting methane in drinking water in northeastern Pennsylvania posed no health risks.51

Another slide lists a side-by-side comparison of coverage by the Union of Concerned Scientists, Scientific American, and The Guardian outlining the dangers of methane produced by fracking to climate change, with Energy In Depth’s reporting instead on a reduction in methane production over time from shale producers.52

February 2015

FTI Consulting conducted a poll on behalf of Producers for American Crude Oil Exports (PACE) that showed a majority of Americans supported crude oil exports.53

According to the poll, “By a wide 69%‐25% margin, Americans support ‘Allowing American oil producers to sell crude oil to customers in countries who are trading partners.’”54

September 2014

An issue of FTI Journal, co-authored by Steve Everley who leads the Energy In Depth program, outlines how a social media strategy is key for the oil industry—specifically fracking—in order to companies to shape public opinion:55

“Put succinctly: The demographic with which the oil and gas industry needs to improve its image also is the most active on social media, sharing content more frequently than any other group”, the article notes.”56

“The fact that users then will share this unadulterated information with their own networks means social media is the ultimate way to get ahead of the news and, in some cases, shape the tone of the ensuing coverage,” the article notes (emphasis added).57

March 6, 2013

FTI released a “white paper” titled “The Rise of Environmental Activism in the Energy Sector.” The paper describes activism as a “growing concern” and outlines strategies to counter activist shareholders without engaging them directly.58

“Environmental shareholder activism in the energy space continues to be a growing concern. These activists, under the guise of transparency and risk mitigation, continue to push for significant changes that would have far-reaching effects on corporate strategies and operations. During the 2012 proxy season, enviro-activists successfully used shareholder resolutions to spur action on sustainability hot-button issues such as hydraulic fracturing, water and air risks, and climate change. Expect more of the same in 2013,” the report summary reads.

The full report (PDF) offers a strategy for “A successful approach to dealing with activist situations.” Under a section titled “The Best Defense is a Good Offense,” best practices listed include developing a communication strategy under the assumption that the environmental concerns are not in the best interest of the company:59

“In order to successfully fend off an environmental activist threat, a company must convince the investment community, and potentially the business media, that the resolution advocated by any activist is not in the best interest of the company and its stakeholders. Accordingly, the organization will need to formulate a communications strategy to ensure that all of its primary stakeholders clearly recognize the long-term implications related to the activist demands before the situation escalates publicly. Included in this strategy is the development of necessary collateral materials that contain compelling facts and figures that serve to debunk activist claims and also assist in further educating shareholders and the media. ”

The plan also outlines how a company can counter environmentalist shareholders while avoiding dialogue entirely:60

“Now is the critical time to begin developing an engagement strategy in order to make sure that your company is prepared to achieve a majority ‘no’ vote and ensure that all of your key stakeholders fully understand the long-term implications of the activist demands before agreeing to any ongoing dialogue with potential activist investors.”

June 27, 2013

Catanzaro co-authored a paper titled “Age of Abundance” (PDF), published by FTI Consulting and Sidley Austin LLP, supporting the export of U.S. crude oil. Authors included Mike Catanzaro, Casey O’She aand Jamie McInerney of FTI Consulting and Roger Martella of Sidley Austin.61

2013

Chris Tucker, a managing director for FTI Consulting’s Energy & Natural Resources Sector—and then team lead for Energy In Depth presented at an event on “environmental issues affecting midstream and downstream oil and gas development”62 jointly hosted by Blank Rome LLP and Hull. Hull describes itself as “a project development and engineering consulting firm specializing in Environment, Energy and Infrastructure market.”63

Related Organizations

Energy Industry Clients

FTI Consulting has more than 1,000 clients worldwide. Below are some select samples they provide from the Energy Industry, in a 2013 presentation

...

american Petroleum Institute

Cloud Peak Energy

Constellation Energy

BHP Billiton

Faroe Petroleum

Exelon

Bahamas Petroleum Company

Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation

FutureGen Alliance

Cove Energy

Nighthawk Energy PLC

Consol Energy

INEOS

Trans Adriatic Pipeline

MarkWest

Noble Energy

Transocean

Terpel

Halliburton

Pacific Rubiales Energy

StarEnergy

Tesoro

Shell

PetroChina

UGO Corporation

New Standard Energy

Gaz de France

ORLEN

Canacol Energy

SUEZ

Meridian Petroleum

IPAA

OPHIR

Questar GAs

Asociacion Colombiana Del Petroleo

Rex Energy

TOTAL

OMV

Gazel

Petrominerales

PetroTiger

Hunt Oil Company

Peabody Energy (Helped with bankruptcy filings)65

Below is another slide of FTI clients, this from a 2015 presentation to the oil industry:66

additional groups listed in this graphic include:

Falkland Oil and Gas Limited

Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH)

Petrolatina

HESS

Marathon Oil Corporation

Ocensa

Teton Energy Corporation

Seatacks

EcoPetrol

Amerisur Resources

Heritage Oil

Northern Petroleum PLC

Range Resources

Integra

Cheniere

Marcellus Shale Coalition

Promigas

Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME)

Petrobas

Valero Energy Corporation

HOCOL Petroleum

PTT Group

Cooper Energy

Eni

Energias

Clients in the EU

The following were listed on a profile of FTI at the Association of Accredited Public Policy Advocates to the European Union, as of June 2017:67

Oil, Gas, Mining, & Pipeline

Exxon Mobil

International Group of Mining Companies

Trans Adriatic Pipeline

Fuels Europe (Formerly EUROPIA)

Hess Corporation

Interconnector (U.K.)

Intergaz Ltd

International Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP)

Landis+Gir — Software producer for the electricity and gas utility industry

Noble Energy

Other Clients

Albermarle

European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA)

Ad Hoc Committee of HETA Senior Noteholders

Aeorum

Amazon

American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmChamEU)

Aon

Apex-Brasil

Atlantis

Bayer

BIC Biobased

Biogen

Booking.com

European Salt Producers Association (EU Salt)

European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE)

Europabio

Fair Standard Alliance

Grant Thornton International

Halliburton

International Animal Health Organisation

Johnson & Johnson

Merck

Microsoft

Netflix

PATH

Petrolina

Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU)

Prevezon*

Schroders

SITA OnAir

UCB

World Platinum

Xerox

Zalando

Zoetis

*Prevezon has been on trial in the US for laundering funds. According to an article in the EU Observer, the company was not listed on FTI Consulting’s entry in the European Commission transparency register, however FTI was responsible for arranging meetings between the company’s lawyers and journalists.68

EU Clients by Revenue

The European Commission transparency register lists the following companies for FTI Consulting Belgium for the 2018 financial year:69

With the revenue below 9,999 €:

BGI Group

Caymen Finance

European Aluminum Association (EAA)

European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA)

JP Morgan

With the revenue of 10,000 € – 24,999 €:

Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA)

Associação Nacional de Farmácias’s (ANF)

European Foundation for Democracy

Glencore

Macquarie

Microsoft

Renewi

Sceye Inc.

Siemens

SolarPowerEurope

With the revenue of 25,000 € – 49,999 €:

Anglo American

Landis+Gyr

Highgate Capital

Lebanese American University

Sugar Industry Roundtable (SIRT)

WEEE Forum

With the revenue of 50,000 € – 99,999 €:

BIC Bio-based

Chemours

European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE)

European Principal Traders Association (FIA–EPTA)

Heineken

IG Group

Index Industry Association (IIA)

International Group of Mining Companies (IGMC)

Johnson&Johnson

LyondellBasell

Managed Funds Association (MFA)

McAfee

Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE)

PATH

Samsung

Turquoise Hill

Wellington

With the revenue of 100,000 € – 199,999 €:

Allegro

Aon

Booking.com

Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA)

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Deutsche Börse

Emirates Global Aluminium

European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries & Associations (EFPIA)

General Motors

Groupe BPCE

GW Pharma

Harley-Davidson

Noble Energy

Red Bull

Schroders

TB Alliance

Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP)

Vanguard

With the revenue of 200,000 € – 299,999 €:

Amazon

Bank of New York Mellon

Bayer

Biogen

Facebook

Zalando

With the revenue of 300,000 € – 399,999 €:

Apex-Brasil

Citadel

Netflix

Novartis

With the revenue of 400,000 € – 499,999 €:

Fair Standards Alliance (FSA)

Hydrogen Council

With the revenue of 500,000 € – 599,999 €:

Google

With the revenue of 600,000 € – 699,999 €:

Exxon Mobil

With the revenue of 700,000 € – 799,999 €:

Mastercard

New clients not covered under financial estimate:

With the revenue below 9,999 €:

Eurogas

With the revenue of 10,000 € – 24,999 €:

Deliveroo

With the revenue of 50,000 € – 99,999 €:

AstraZeneca

Principle Power

Free Now

Turkish Steel Producers Association (TCUD)

Takeda

With the revenue of 100,000 € – 199,999 €:

GEFCO

With the revenue of 200,000 € – 299,999 €:

Tetra Pak

Acquisitions70

CDG Group — Acquired in 2017.

LECG — FTI acquired numerous parts of LECG in 2011.

FS Asia Advisory — Acquired in 2010.

CXO, LLC — Acquired in 2009.

Attenex Corporation — Acquired in 2008.

Rubino & McGeehin Consulting Group — Acquired in 2008.

Lexecon and Competition Policy Associates (Combined to form Compass Lexicon under FTI Consulting) — Acquired in 2008.

Holder International — 2007.

Financial Dynamics (FD) — 2006.

International Risk, Ltd — 2006.

Brower Kriz & Stynchcomb — 2006.

G3 Ltd — 2006.

Ringtail Solutions Group — 2005.

Cambio Health Solutions — 2005.

Stone Turn — 2005.

Lexecon — 2003.

Ten Eyck Associates — 2003.

PricewaterhouseCoopers — 2002.

LWG — 1997.

Contact & Address

As of 2019, FTI Consulting listed that it had more than 4,900 employees and offices in 27 countries.71

Executive Headquarters

555 12th Street NW

Suite 700

Washington DC 20004

United States

TEL: +1 202 312 9100

FAX: +1 202 312 9101

Social Media

FTI Consulting on LinkedIn

FTI Consulting on Facebook

Glassdoor profile for FTI Consulting

@FTIConsulting/@FTI_SC on Twitter.

Other Resources

“FTI Consulting,” SourceWatch.

“FTI Consulting, IncLittleSis.

Resources

...

https://littlesis.org/org/79148-FTI_Consulting,_Inc

1 of 4

maría Paula Duque

• managing director strategic communications (Mar '21→?)

Eric B Miller

• EVPGen CounselChf Risk Ofcr

Cheryl Edwardes Australian Businessperson & former member of the WA Legislative Assembly

• Senior Advisor Strategic Communications (Jul '13→?)

Jackson T Dunn III Lobbyist, FTI Consulting

• senior managing director, strategic communications

Steven Henry Gunby

• CEO (Jan '14→?) [+1]

Paul Alderman Linton

• Chief Strategy/Transf Officer (Aug '14→?)

Holly Paul

• Chief Human Resources Officer (Jan '15→?)

Heather Klink

• General Counsel (Feb '15→?)

Matthew Pachman

• VP, Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer (Feb '15→?)

• Institutional investor

Blue Harbour Group, L.P. A privately owned hedge fund sponsor. The firm invests in the public equity markets of the United States.

• Institutional investor

Argyll Research, LLC

• Institutional investor

Artisan Partners Holdings LP

• Institutional investor

Fidelity Management & Research Company privately owned investment manager

• Institutional investor

T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. A privately owned investment manager, subsidiary of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.

• Institutional investor

BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. A privately owned investment manager, previously known as Barclays Global Investors, NA

• Institutional investor

Vanguard Group Inc One of the world's largest investment management companies

• Institutional investor

State Street Global Advisors Investment Management Division of State Street Corporation

• Institutional investor

Board Members

1 / 2

Mark S Bartlett

• Board Member (Jan '15→?)

Nicholas C Fanandakis Retired after 40-years as the EVP of DowDuPont Inc

• Board Member (Jan '14→?)

James W Crownover

• Board Member

Steven Henry Gunby

• Board Member (Jan '14→?)

Brenda J Bacon

• Board Member

Claudio Costamagna

• Board Member

Vernon James Ellis

• Board Member

Marc Holtzman

• Board Member

Gerard E Holthaus

• Board Member

George P Stamas Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

• Board Member (past)

Donations

James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy Rice University

• Donation · 75,000 USD

Holdings

C2 Group LLC

• Owner

Members

Noble Energy, Inc. Oil and natural gas exploration and production

• PR Representative (Mar 1 '17→May 31 '17)

Faroe Petroleum

• PR Representative (Dec 1 '16→Feb 28 '17)

Trans Adriatic Pipeline

• PR Representative (Dec 1 '16→May 31 '17)

Services & Transactions

1 / 6

Autoridad para las Alianzas Publico Privadas de Puerto Rico

• Service/Transaction · 2,000,000 USD (Sep 4 '19→Jul 31 '20)

Devon Energy Corporation An independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company.

• Lobbying Firm · 50,000 USD

Transportation Fairness Alliance Pro-oil/gas, anti-EV coalition

• client

Independent Petroleum Association of America Oil and gas trade group

• a client ('09→?) [+1]

Comite Oficial de Retirados Comite que presente a los pensionados en la quiebra de Puerto Rico - Committee that represents retirees in Puerto Rico's bankruptcy

• client [+1]

Population Health Collaborative Insurance industry-led Buffalo public health group

• Client

OMV AG Crude oil and natural gas company based in Austria

• consulting client

Intuit TurboTax and other financial software

• Client

Delta Air Lines, Inc. Atlanta, GA based airline

• Client

Burisma Holdings Ukraine’s largest private natural gas producer

• Client

Miscellaneous Relationships

Coloradans for Energy Access Gas industry greenwashing group

• Affiliation

Energy in Depth IPAA's "state of the art online resource center to combat new environmental regulations"

• campaign

FTI Consulting, Inc

Updated 29 days ago

Basic Info

Types Organization, Business, Public Company

Start date 1982

Website http://www.fticonsulting.com/

Aliases FTI Consulting

External Links

Sec - Edgar

Wikipedia: FTI_Consulting

Tags

fracking

Source Links

83 documents :: see all

The behind-the-scenes plan to protect natural gas stoves and furnaces in Colorado

María Paula Duque

Maria Paula Duque Linkedin

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT

Vimy - board & management

Transportation Fairness Alliance Revealed: Behind the Oil Industry's Latest Attack on Electric Cars

Marti Kopacz Linkedin

Linked In

FTI Techinical Paper

News

Network Maps

Oil & Gas Lobbyists Bundle for Clinton

A project of the Public Accountability Initiative. More about LittleSis.

interlocks 1 of many

Energy in Depth	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan	Chris Tucker, Dana Bohan
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling	Denis J Callaghan, Jeffrey S Amling
Penn Schoen Berland	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli	Jeffrey Levine, Lauren Vincelli
Teneo Holdings LLC	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary	Declan Kelly, Paul Keary
Pepco Holdings	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV	Jack B Dunn IV
ITT Inc	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis	Nicholas C Fanandakis
PPL	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro
Allied Waste Industries	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover
Chemtura Corporation	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover
Republic Services, Inc.	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover	James W Crownover
T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett	Mark S Bartlett
US House Committee on Financial Services	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle	Travis Windle
John Boehner	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro	Michael Catanzaro
Mark Udall	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco	Lawrence Pacheco
The World Bank Group	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown
US Department of Justice	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin	Myron Marlin
United States Department of Transportation	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline
Federal Transit Administration	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline
University of Kansas	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline	John Cline
Donald Trump	Michael Catanzaro p 2	Rice University	James W Crownover					C2 Group LLC	John Cline		American Continental Group	John Cline		APCO Worldwide	Myron Marlin		Murray Montgomery & Odonnell	John Cline		The Boston Consulting Group Inc.	Steve Gunby		George H W Bush	John Cline		Committee for Economic Development	Steven Henry Gunby		Roy Romer	Lawrence Pacheco		University of Massachusetts System	John Cline		New Mountain Capital LLC	Declan Kelly		House Republican Conference	Travis Windle		Shell Exploration & Production Co.	David Blackmon		Houston Grand Opera	James W Crownover		Open Society Foundations	Mark Malloch-Brown	Mark Malloch-Brown

https://www.desmog.com/2022/02/07/fti-consulting-fossil-fuels-pr-energy-in-depth/

no lnx many docs grafx

An FTI Consulting Presentation Pulls Back the Veil on Fossil Fuel PR

The 2015 slides describe “discrediting” science, “debunking” documentaries, and positioning its fracking industry project Energy In Depth “at the center of the shale boom’s biggest moments.”

By Sharon Kelly onFeb 7, 2022

Facebook post by Energy In Depth sharing a video with four Earths and arrows pointing up or down to show countries' carbon emissions

A screenshot of a 2016 Earth Day message from Energy In Depth, a fracking industry project of FTI Consulting and the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

“We understand how the oil and gas sector works — we’ve worked in it, studied it, defended it and impacted the policy that regulates it,” a 2015 presentation delivered to the Tennessee Oil and Gas Association begins. “We have been instrumental players in the industry’s highest profile business issues, regulatory hearings, legal disputes and arbitration.”

Those bona fides came not from an oil and gas company or investor, but from FTI Consulting, a sprawling consulting firm that markets its strategic communications services to a wide range of industries — including coal, oil, and gas producers.

FTI’s 2015 presentation, obtained by DeSmog, offers a rare glimpse at what PR firms offer to fossil fuel companies and how they work their messaging and strategies into news articles and headlines. It comes at a time when the PR industry has been wrestling with its role in the climate crisis. In January, the Clean Creatives campaign, which represents PR professionals concerned about their industry’s role in promoting fossil fuels, released a letter signed by 450 scientists. It calls on PR firms to drop fossil fuel clients and stop spreading what the letter described as “advertising and PR efforts by fossil fuel companies that seek to obfuscate or downplay our data and the risks posed by the climate crisis.”

FTI’s claim in the 2015 presentation to have been instrumental for the oil industry isn’t bluster. In November 2020, a New York Times investigation found that “FTI has been involved in the operations of at least 15 current and past influence campaigns promoting fossil-fuel interests in addition to its direct work for oil and gas clients.”

“This is pretty damning.”

Melissa Aronczyk, Rutgers University professor

This is reflected in the 2015 presentation, in which FTI touted its connections to dozens of fossil fuel and chemical companies, including Shell, Halliburton, and Range Resources, and lists groups like the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Shale Resource Centre Canada, and the Center for Liquified Natural Gas under the heading “redefining communications support.” The presentation focuses on what is perhaps FTI’s best-known project for the fossil fuel industry: Energy In Depth, a project that’s served as a “rapid response platform” for the shale industry.

Outside experts called the presentation revealing.

“PR firms — I guess FTI Consulting is also strategic management — they don’t want to ever be seen officially to be very overtly trying to control the conversation,” Melissa Aronczyk, a professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, told DeSmog. “They want to be able to say, ‘no, no, we’re just producing our facts, we’re just producing our evidence and using the statistics that are out there.’”

“And so this is pretty damning,” she added.

Entering FTI’s World

A major focus of FTI’s 2015 presentation, mentioned on more than 20 of its 45 slides, is Energy In Depth, which calls itself a “research, education and public outreach campaign” that was “launched jointly by FTI and Independent Petroleum Assn. of America (IPAA) in 2009” and is “specifically focused on” shale and fracking. In 2011, DeSmog obtained a leaked memo crediting fossil fuel companies including BP, Anadarko, Shell, Halliburton, and others, as well as trade associations, including IPAA and the American Petroleum Institute, with “early financial commitments” without which “the ‘Energy In Depth’ project would not be possible.”

FTI’s 2015 presentation tallies more than 1,100 Energy In Depth “rebuttals” and 600,000-plus Google hits for Energy In Depth, and claims the initiative was “at the center of the shale boom’s biggest moments.”

To enter the world of Energy In Depth’s messaging, as seen in FTI’s 2015 presentation, is to enter a world where “the facts about methane emissions” show that the greenhouse gas pollution from “some of the most prolific” U.S. oil and gas fields had dropped “considerably.” Graphs show carbon dioxide and methane emissions plunging as shale gas production takes off. “Happy Earth Day! From Energy In Depth,” an accompanying video still reads.

A screenshot from FTI Consulting’s May 2015 presentation.

“It sounds like a happy story because it looks like CO2 emissions are going down,” said Ben Franta, an attorney and director of accountability research for the Climate Social Science Network, when asked about FTI’s slides on methane. “But, of course, what matters is the entire global warming effect from all greenhouse gases.”

Today, we know that methane levels in the atmosphere were on the rise in 2015 — and they’ve continued to climb since then, in no small part due to the oil and gas industry’s leaks and routine “venting” of unburned methane. “After a plateau which began in 1999, concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere started rising again in 2007, a trend that continues to this day,” the Economist reported last year. “Both ground-based and aerial studies show that leaky natural-gas pipes are one culprit.”

Methane matters enormously because it’s a powerful and fast-acting greenhouse gas that’s partly responsible for the climate crisis shifting into high gear. In recent years, natural gas–fired power plants have increasingly displaced coal-fired plants.

Franta pointed to the broader PR industry’s involvement in fossil fuel climate messaging for decades. “The idea of promoting natural gas as a climate solution goes back to at least the late ’80s as well,” he said. “In some of the fossil fuel industry’s internal documents, they identify various strategies they can use to look like they’re addressing climate change while actually keeping fossil fuels dominant in the market — and one of those strategies is, promote more natural gas.”

But that, as an August 2021 editorial in the scientific journal Nature explains, has come at “a cost to the climate,” since methane has contributed as much as 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit of today’s global warming, compounding the problems caused by the most closely tracked greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

“PR professionals have been helping the industry craft its messages and those messages have been designed to create delay,” Franta said. “Looking at the presentation, it seems pretty clear that Energy In Depth — and FTI who’s behind that — is playing a role in not telling the whole story about fossil gas.”

Debunk and Discredit

FTI’s understanding of its own work in 2015 appears to have included, in the presentation’s words, “debunking” prominent documentaries and “discrediting” scientific research.

The presentation includes slides about FTI’s work “Debunking Gasland,” referring to an award-winning 2010 documentary that explores the environmental consequences of fracking and its 2013 sequel. Energy In Depth claims credit for launching a 35-minute video dubbed “Truthland,” “to combat Gasland,” adding that they “executed a 60-stop screening tour in 20 states.”

One subsequent slide is devoted to “discrediting the Duke Methane Studies,” a collection of scientific research from Duke University into the shale industry’s environmental impacts. On the slide’s left, a news headline reads “Pennsylvania fracking called peril to water,” while on the right, a bolded passage from a different article suggests water problems were “unrelated to nearby fracking wells.” An arrow bearing Energy in Depth’s logo draws the eye from the left side of the slide to the right.

A screenshot from FTI Consulting’s 2015 presentation highlight its efforts to cast doubt on scientific studies.

In the years since, Duke’s early research has in fact held up well within the scientific community, with the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences listing hundreds of citations of the paper pictured, including 72 within the past two years.

“Our research, it’s meant to be criticized and it’s meant to be talked about,” said Nathaniel Warner, a Penn State University professor and lead author of the 2012 study pictured on FTI’s slideshow. “And if somebody comes up with a way in which to disprove it by doing a scientific study then that’s great and that’s okay. But most of these are more — I don’t know — they’re more just trying to suggest things that could be wrong and not necessarily go about demonstrating that they are wrong.”

“I thought I was going to be kind of a champ for industry here,” Warner added, explaining that some, though not all, of the paper’s findings on water contamination had actually proved favorable for industry.

The FTI presentation is by Katie Brown, then an Energy In Depth spokesperson according to the slides, which add that she previously worked for “an education campaign” for the Keystone XL pipeline. Brown also authored numerous Energy In Depth posts, such as this July 2015 piece on methane leaks whose description of a set of scientific studies published by a number of universities and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) was so flawed that EDF, which coordinated the series, put out a response calling Energy In Depth’s work “flat wrong” and a “willful misrepresentation of the findings.”

Seeding a Response

FTI’s 2015 presentation is also noteworthy because it doesn’t just look backwards at Energy In Depth’s work to date. It also looks forward, identifying a handful of what FTI called “priority issues” — that is, potential crises that might hit the industry.

That look forward illustrates an area where Aronczyk, co-author of the new book A Strategic Nature: Public Relations and the Politics of American Environmentalism, said polluting industries have historically tended to outperform environmentalists.

PR firms, she explained, developed the practice of “issue management,” strategically tackling long-term liabilities and simmering problems that could one day boil over. That strategy involves laying the groundwork so their clients — in this case, oil and gas companies — will have an early entry into debates that could impact regulation. More generally, the strategy is meant to burnish an industry’s or company’s credibility in areas where their operations are likely to cause bigger headaches down the road.

“Wherever you see Energy In Depth as part of the conversation, that’s where the problem is.”

Melissa Aronczyk

FTI’s first “priority issue” slide focuses on earthquakes — a problem that is indeed still plaguing the oil and gas industry.

In 2015, there was still debate over whether fracking directly caused earthquakes, and regulators were just starting to scrutinize the role played by the oil and gas industry’s wastewater disposal practices. In April 2015, a month before FTI’s presentation, the state of Oklahoma had acknowledged for the first time that the oil and gas industry was likely responsible for a massive surge in earthquakes that had begun rattling the state.

“They see that it’s a problem waiting to explode because the more earthquakes that happen, the more people are going to panic and cause some sort of reckoning,” Aronczyk told DeSmog. She pointed to a CBS News interview highlighted in FTI’s presentation, explaining that “they’re showing how their Energy In Depth spokesperson is already talking about it and saying, ‘we’re sharing science, we’re cooperating, we’re part of this conversation, we’re in the mix’.… They’re seeding, essentially, their future response so that when the crisis hits, they’ve already got everything in place to respond.”

FTI tagging earthquakes as a “priority issue” proved prescient. The temblors have indeed continued in Oklahoma — and the United States Geological Survey has even noted that they are “known to be induced by hydraulic fracturing” — though their numbers dropped after state regulators placed curbs on the oil and gas industry’s wastewater disposal practices. More importantly, that strategic approach suggests that Energy In Depth’s “priority issues” — which in 2015 also included local efforts to ban fracking and the Environmental Protection Agency’s closely watched research into fracking and water contamination — may offer clues to where bigger problems for oil and gas may be about to emerge.

“Wherever you see Energy In Depth as part of the conversation,” said Aronczyk, “that’s where the problem is.”

The Climate Threat

It’s worth bearing in mind that FTI is not simply a PR firm and that many of its clients are not fossil fuel companies. A May 2015 FTI investor presentation shows that a mere 10 percent of FTI’s first quarter 2015 revenues came from its “strategic communications” work. According to this presentation, a majority of the firm’s revenue came from other activities like consulting on economics and litigation or working on bankruptcies and corporate finance.

But this sliver of work might pose a potential risk to FTI’s overall operations. The company’s public climate-related policies show the firm’s management is aware of the risks it faces from climate change, including potential damage to its reputation. “FTI Consulting recognizes that climate change is a global threat,” an Environmental Responsibility and Climate Change Disclosure Policy released by FTI in March 2021 says, “and one of the most significant environmental challenges of our time.”

Towards the end of 2021, the firm also acknowledged climate change directly in its first-ever corporate sustainability report. The report referred to the “ongoing climate crisis” and observed that FTI itself “may be indirectly affected from a reputational standpoint based on work we do for our clients in high emissions industries.”

“Reputational risk is critically important to our firm and brand because our ability to attract and retain leading experts, as well as our retention by global clientele including on their own reputational risks, is driven by our own reputation,” FTI’s report adds. In other words, the firm is aware that its reputation is key to hiring experts and retaining clients who are conscious of their own reputations.

Climate campaigners were quick to point out the disconnect between FTI’s climate messaging and FTI’s public relations work for fossil fuel firms.

“If climate change is a global threat,” Duncan Meisel, director of the Clean Creatives campaign, said in an email to DeSmog, “fossil fuel companies are a global threat.”

“They are primarily responsible for the growth of global carbon pollution, and it’s irresponsible for FTI to retain them as clients, particularly in this capacity,” Meisel continued. “Simply put, we cannot stop the climate emergency in a world where these companies continue to grow, and that is what they hire FTI to help them do.”

FTI declined to say whether it would heed Clean Creatives’ call. “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on client engagements,” Matthew Bashalany, head of FTI’s global media relations, said in an email.

FTI did however provide a response to our inquiry regarding the Duke methane studies. “Just for background information and factual context regarding the slide you referenced below, I thought it would be helpful to include a sample of what third-party, independent researchers and government agencies said about the conclusions of the paper you cited following its release back in 2011,” FTI’s spokesperson wrote.

He offered links to two news articles and three scientific publications that cast doubt on the broader series of Duke methane studies. “The slide covered the series,” he clarified in an email.

The scientific publications, however, included a study that carries a correction because its lead author had failed to disclose that he was “funded privately by Chesapeake [Energy] for this work” and omitted information about the other two authors’ ties to fossil fuel companies.

FTI’s work through Energy In Depth has drawn congressional attention in recent years. “Here in Congress, we can’t keep dancing to the tune of this crowd,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said in a December 2020 speech discussing FTI’s work for fossil fuel clients. “It is on us whether this web of denial will hold us back or whether we will break free at last of its corrupting influence and do, for once — for once — our duty instead of its bidding.”

ENERGY SCIENCE DENIAL

desmog

tactics used by PR firms include paid media campaigns, earned media placements, so-called grassroots events (or astroturfing), and social media campaigns. DeSmog and others in climate journalism have long been working to expose how corporate interests employ these PR industry techniques to manipulate public opinion on climate and energy, from Edelman’s 2014 work on behalf of a TransCanada tar sands pipeline to FTI Consulting’s recent efforts to sell hydrogen and natural gas as climate solutions.

recall exxon busted (UK?) and promised to stop funding denial so shift to buffer/front/trade:

https://climateinvestigations.org/exxon-and-friends-still-funding-climate-denial-and-obstruction-through-ipaa-fti-energy-in-depth

many docs grafs

Internal documents and conversations from the fracking lobby, revealed this week in HuffPost, shine new light on a ten year old public relations campaign front group called Energy In Depth. Documents show this front group is designed explicitly to exist without the fingerprints of its fossil fuel funders, giving the oil industry the “ability to say, do and write things that individual company employees cannot and should not.”

This reporting reveals how climate denial remains a key oil industry strategy in spite of their efforts to clean up their image. These shrouded attacks on climate science and solutions, attacks on lawmakers, scientists, lawyers and advocates stand in stark contrast to the seemingly desperate efforts of Exxon and their brethren to retain ‘social license’, gain credibility on climate change and distance themselves from their legacy of climate science denial.

Let’s define “climate denial” up front, as we did years ago in a Guardian interview for a story about Edelman PR: “Our definition of denial is anyone who is obstructing, delaying or trying to derail policy steps that are in line with the scientific consensus that says we need to take rapid steps to decarbonize the economy.” Simple enough. It goes beyond just denying that global warming exists.

HuffPost’s reporting shows that Exxon is a member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), an oil and gas industry trade association whose online assets include “news” sites like Energy In Depth (EID) that spew climate denial and attacks on scientists, journalists, advocates, and lawyers. IPAA acts as a pass through, bundling corporate members’ cash that’s funneled to the firm FTI Consulting, which created and manages sites like EID. An ExxonMobil spokesperson, responding to questions from the HuffPost reporter, tried valiantly to keep the veil in place, saying, “Your questions are better addressed to EID or IPAA.”

IPAA’s long history of denial

The IPAA has a long history of funding and proliferating misinformation on climate change, a legacy that continues to the this day. IPAA was named as a potential funder of the infamous multi-million dollar “uncertainty” campaign detailed in the 1998 Global Climate Science Communications Plan, an effort organized by API, Exxon, Chevron, Southern Company and assorted libertarian extremists. You can find that file and others in our ClimateFiles collection.

POTENTIAL FUNDING FOR GLOBAL CLIMATE SCIENCE COMMUNICATIONS (p. 8)

Potential funding sources were identified as American Petroleum Institute (API) and its members; Business Round Table (BRT) and its members, Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and its members; Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and its members; and the National Mining Association (NMA) and its members. - Potential fund allocators were identified as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), Competitive Enterprise Institute, Frontiers of Freedom and the Marshall Institute.

[View entire document on DocumentCloud]

The IPAA fact sheet on Climate Change released that same year has some pretty alarming climate denial claims — some even more extreme than the Global Climate Coalition was pushing at the time, and includes references to Fred Singer’s Leipzig Declaration and the Imperial Oil DRI/McGraw Hill study on carbon taxes. IPAA also blame termites and volcanoes — basically everything but fossil fuels — for altering the atmosphere more than fossil fuels:

“Consider this: the largest source of greenhouse gas may be termites, whose digestive activities are responsible for 10 times more production of CO2 than burning fossil fuels.”

“So, since human-related CO2 is only a small portion of total atmospheric CO2, measures taken to limit it will have little or no measurable effect on overall emissions into the atmosphere. More importantly, there is still no evidence that CO2 emissions are warming the earth’s atmosphere. And we have no proof that man’s impact makes a difference at all.”

By 2008, the IPAA had a more nuanced fact sheet on climate change, but still emphasized uncertainty and denial,

“…no climate change policy action should discard the question of science. Too often, recent arguments for action discard the uncertainties of today’s understanding of global climate science. Global climate science is an emerging field, one that changes as the tools to model it improve.”

They know better…

The Washington Post revealed that in a June, 2019 presentation at an IPAA meeting, influential energy lawyer Mark Barron said the “ship has sailed” on using climate science denial as the first line of defense. Instead, Barron advocated lobbying Congress for climate legislation that benefits the oil and gas industry. He drew a sharp contrast between the industry’s former attacks on climate science and a more recent nuanced approach. He told the oil and gas executives and lobbyists gathered at the meeting sponsored by fracking giants Halliburton, Schlumberger and Oxy that they should be ready to talk about global warming, as long as they position fossil fuels as the solution. Despite this, HuffPost reporting shows that Barron’s audience, the IPAA and its members, are still deploying on climate denial and attacks on scientists through projects like EID and other web organs.

Funding Front Groups – FTI and Energy In Depth

IPAA describes Energy in Depth as the industry’s lead “rapid response platform” for the fracking industry. IPAA created Energy in Depth (EID) shortly after the environmental impacts from the fracking boom began to make national headlines. IPAA member Exxon/XTO was one of EID’s first funders.

Internal IPAA Board documents, published by HuffPost, describe the purpose of the project:

“The main focus of EID has evolved into addressing the “Keep It In The Ground” movement.” (Keep it In The Ground refers to activists and scientists working to keep new fossil fuels from being extracted and burned, commensurate with the conclusion by international scientists that we simply cannot burn even a percentage of known and potential fossil fuel reserves if we want to keep global temperatures from rising to dangerous levels.)

...

Funding for EID comes directly from unnamed oil and gas corporations like Exxon, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Oxy, Marathon Oil, and is funneled through IPAA, which funds the Energy in Depth project on an annual basis.

According IPAA budget documents, the EID campaign costs more than $2 million dollars per year, representing about one fifth of IPAA’s total budget, second only to “Salaries and Benefits” in scale.

BIG QUESTION: What puzzles us is how IPAA is classifying this expense to the IRS. This $2M plus annual payment to FTI does not appear, as required by law, on the IRS 990 form filed by IPAA under “Independent Contractors” “that received more than $100,000 in compensation from the organization.” (see Part VII Section B on page 8 of 2017 990). Perhaps IPAA can provide an explanation.

IPAA 2017 990 Independent Contractors Page 8

The real story of Energy In Depth

Colleagues at DeSmog have been watching Energy in Depth from the beginning, when it was launched to blunt attention to the rapid spread of fracking ten years ago and concerns from community members, lawmakers, journalists and activists.

IPAA’s Jeff Eshelman, described the genesis and purpose of the group in a 2017 IPAA retreat:

The IPAA funding of over $2M a year to FTI/Energy in Depth is spent on five sub-campaigns, meant to undermine the public’s understanding and support of climate and environmental protections:

EID Climate exists “to counteract the “Keep it in the Ground” movement’s newsiest strategy to use climate change as a weapon to silence dissent and shut down American energy production”. The website pushes back on litigation against oil and gas companies.

EID Health is a “rapid response program” to counter studies linking oil and gas drilling and production to health impacts.

Endangered Species Watch is meant to blunt the Federal Endangered Species Act and is described as “disseminating news, regulations and issue alerts to member companies, affiliated industries and policy makers.”

Energy Tax Facts defends tax subsidies for the fossil fuel industry

Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign advocates against movements asking Universities and pension funds to divest from fossil fuels.

FTI has carved out a specialty in aggressive attacks on foes of the oil and gas industry, doing the dirty work that oil corporations would not want their brands tied to in public. An FTI “Techical Paper” report presented at a 2014 Brazilian oil industry conference describes Energy in Depth’s purpose pretty bluntly, stating that the web asset provides the “ability to say, do and write things that individual company employees cannot and should not.” (emphasis added)

The actual work of running EID is contracted out by IPAA to FTI Consulting, a massive global PR and consulting firm. Here are a few individuals we know are connected to the Energy In Depth project and have written themselves into the wrong side of history:

Matt Dempsey, a Managing Director at FTI, manages Energy in Depth and lists himself as an editorial editor WesternWire, another front group run for Western Energy Alliance, another oil trade association like IPAA. Dempsey and a colleague were recently recorded by a lawyer for EarthRights International who called them out for being agents of Exxon, and pretending to be journalists. Exxon is a defendant in the Boulder Colorado lawsuit that EID and WesternWire have tried hard to malign. Dempsey used to work for Senator James Inhofe.

Steve Everley, is an FTI Managing Director of Strategic Communications and a senior advisor on the Energy In Depth project. Inside Climate News ran a lengthy rebuttal to the work Everley did to trash their actual journalism on fracking in 2014.

Spencer Walrath, who is actually an FTI employee (Director, Energy & Natural Resources at FTI Consulting Inc) but pretends to be an journalist on Energy In Depth. He graduated University of Northern Iowa in 2012. Spencer’s FTI job was announced in his college newsletter.

Katie Brown, PhD, who now works for FTI out of Belgium was a major part of Energy in Depth while working for FTI in Washington DC until a couple years ago. This archived 45 slide Powerpoint presentation from 2014 by Brown lays out the IPAA-FTI-EID connection and details all their work to undermine regulations on ozone, groundwater protection, methane emissions and more. (Brown’s PhD is in English, btw and she is or was working on a book on James Joyce…congratulations, but how does that PhD apply to an energy front group website besides using good grammar?)

More EID denial

FTI’s Energy in Depth Climate front group spends most of its pixels trying to trash climate lawsuits, promoting natural gas as a climate solution, and attacking science implicating methane’s role in climate change. Methane, a super greenhouse gas and the main component of “natural gas”, leaks from fracking fields in vast quantities making the current natural gas supply much dirtier fuel than it used to be before fracking became a thing. This point was recently illustrated nicely with FLIR images by the New York Times, and news of this Exxon gas well leak which released more methane in a few weeks than many countries emit in a year.

Each of the EID sub-campaigns employ tactics common to climate deniers, like attacking climate models, denying the impact of methane from fracking, repeating debunked myths about a global pause in warming, and claiming that “one in six climate and earth scientists” think human’s impact on climate change is “little or none.”

Most recently, Spencer Walrath wrote a piece in EID going after a peer reviewed scientific study on ocean acidification and the companies connected to the carbon dioxide that has acidified the ocean, the science of which is even harder to deny than climate change.

And this post by Katie Brown, PhD at EID uses sham science and Wikipedia links to attack calls for accountability for companies like Exxon.

EID “Experts”

On the EID Climate website, the list of experts includes people like Craig Richardson, president of the coal-funded, climate-denying Energy and Environment Legal Institute. Richardson has called climate change a communist plot.

Other experts include Horace Cooper, who is listed as a senior fellow the National Center for Public Policy Research an organization that has received $445,000 in grants from Exxon over the past two decades including several grants earmarked for climate work.

NCPPR CLIMATE GRANT (p. 44)

View entire document on DocumentCloud]

Cooper is also a Fellow with the preeminent climate science denial group the Heartland Institute. Heartland has held a number of gatherings dedicated to outright climate science denial. Heartland was also heavily funded by Exxon until they dropped them after 2006. The Mercer Family stepped in in 2008 and has given Heartland upwards of $6.7M from 2008-2017. In 2018, this grant appears to have been moved through Donors Trust.

FTI work for other industries with legal and political problems

In 2019, court documents revealed FTI was running opportunities for Monsanto on RoundUp and GMO fights, alternately posing as journalists and attacking journalists, complete with an FTI campaign spreadsheet of steps taken to undermine and intimidate journalist Carey Gillam.

Most recently, FTI produced a report on health care for a front group attacking “Medicare for All” proposals by politicians.

IPAA Lobbying With Climate Denial Under Trump

IPAA is a significant lobbying arm of the oil industry, spending 1.4 million on lobbying in 2018. Freedom of Information Act requests have revealed emails from IPAA lobbyists to key political appointees in the Department of Interior, showing an ignorance of basic climate change information and a willingness to disregard climate science when it gets in the way of oil and gas production.

In one set of emails, IPAA lobbyist Samantha McDonald asked DOI appointees to reduce protections on an endangered species of beetle. A key reason IPAA protested the beetle’s protected status? – because its projected decline was based in part on climate change science. McDonald directly questioned the viability of climate change models, but not before admitting she is “not too familiar” with the 30 year old UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). As proof that the preeminent scientific body studying climate change in the world could not be trusted, she cited a Google search and a random Forbes article. MacDonald wrote to DOI appointee Vincent DeVito in 2017:

“All modeling is done using the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. While I am not too familiar with this organization or their work, I did some searching and found this Forbes article discrediting the IPCC, citing irresponsible science practices (intentionally manipulating data, suppressing legitimate opposing arguments, etc.). This may be something to look into and push back on, since most of the climate changes threat analysis in the SSA is based on this work.”

IPAA ON IPCC (p. 214)

View entire document on DocumentCloud]

In spite of her lack of science background, IPAA’s McDonald would go on to testify on endangered species law, and the beetle would eventually be “downlisted” by the Trump administration as reported by the Washington Post.

In sum, the Energy In Depth project is entirely consistent with the 30 year campaign (or back to the 1940s…see CIEL’s Smoke and Fumes) by the oil industry to avoid being regulated for environmental harm caused by their products – climate change, air and water pollution. This covert effort contradicts oil industry leaders’ anxious attempts to portray a greener, climate friendly business model in recent years.

We can see right through it, but the aim is clear. Between Barron, the lawyer’s comments and IPAA’s front group Energy In Depth, the fossil fuel industry clearly is trying to play it both ways – opposing climate action while pushing natural gas as a solution and trying to benefit from whatever climate policies do come to pass and keep drilling away unchecked. All the while refusing to treat the global climate crisis like the real and present danger that it is. While IPAA lobbyists may try to play good cop in meetings on the Hill, they are actually leaning on old fashioned attacks on science to delay and distort any serious attempt to address climate change.

https://theintercept.com/2019/08/23/monsanto-republicans-cancer-research

EMAILS SHOW MONSANTO ORCHESTRATED GOP EFFORT TO INTIMIDATE CANCER RESEARCHERS HTTPS://THEINTERCEPT.COM/STAFF/LEEFANG/" LEE FANG< ...THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION’S CANCER RESEARCH ARM, THE INTERNATIONAL AGENCY FOR RESEARCH ON CANCER, CLASSIFIED GLYPHOSATE, AN ACTIVE INGREDIENT IN THE HERBICIDE ROUNDUP, AS A “PROBABLE CARCINOGEN,” SETTING OFF A GLOBAL DEBATE ABOUT THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR WEEDKILLER.

Over the last four years, Republicans in Congress have excoriated and pushed to defund the IARC, casting their defense of the chemical as a quest on behalf of small American farmers. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., has written that his outrage over the cancer research is on behalf of the “farmers and food manufacturers who rely on traditional farming methods to produce the food that fuels America — and the world.”

But according to a recent trove of documents, the ongoing political assault on the IARC has been scripted in part by Monsanto, the St. Louis-based chemical and seed conglomerate that produces Roundup and Roundup-resistant crops.

Roundup has been cash cow for the company since the 1970s, fueling billions of dollars in annual profits. Its use has skyrocketed in recent decades since the company developed genetically modified corn and other crops that are resistant to it; it is now the world’s leading herbicide.

A growing number of individuals say that Monsanto failed to warn consumers of the dangers of using Roundup and had marketed the chemical spray as harmless to humans, while internally recommending that its own employees use gloves and protective gear. Critics say that the Roundup formula used in the U.S. also contains a surfactant that makes the herbicide far more toxic than the variation of the spray sold in the European market.

Monsanto, which merged with German multinational pharmaceutical company Bayer AG last year, is facing as many as 11,000 cases relating to glyphosate. Last year, Dewayne Johnson, a former groundskeeper now dying of cancer, was the first to win his jury trial in San Francisco state court against Monsanto, alleging that years of using Roundup contributed to his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Johnson was awarded $289 million by a jury, though a judge later reduced the amount to $78 million. Another plaintiff, Edwin Hardeman, also alleged that he spent decades spraying the glyphosate-based weedkiller with little to no protective gear and developed the same blood cancer, won a similar case in federal court this year.

[Plaintiff Dewayne Johnson after hearing the verdict in his case against Monsanto at the Superior Court of California in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2018. Photo: Josh Edelson, Pool/AP]

The newly disclosed files, released by a plaintiff’s law firm, Baum Hedlund, include company emails, documents, and deposition transcripts showing that Monsanto lawyers and lobbyists guided lawmakers, coordinating efforts to question the IARC’s credibility and slash U.S. support for the international body.

The company has denied claims that its products cause cancer, and Monsanto lawyers have declared that Environmental Protection Agency’s designation of glyphosate as safe should clear the company of any legal liability. In a recent marketing campaign, Bayer touted its friendly cooperation with regulators as a sign that the public should have nothing to fear from its products.

But the documents also suggest that the firm has used its influence with lawmakers to antagonize regulators, applying pressure and investigative threats to shape the science used to research glyphosate and other controversial chemical compounds, as part of a larger campaign to silence critics and discredit the IARC.

IN JUNE 2015, Michael Dykes, then serving as Monsanto’s vice president of government affairs, laid out the company’s strategy for “managing the IARC issue,” following the cancer research center’s determination that March.

The company, he wrote in an email, had dispatched its team of lobbyists to brief “key staff at EPA, USTR, USDA, and the State Department as well as members of Congress” to raise concerns with the IARC’s scientific process, and with how the decision could impact agriculture as well as international trade. Lobbyists also met with an official at the Department of Health and Human Services; they saw the agency’s support as key “to secure a WHO clarification.”

Later in the year, Dykes updated the Monsanto team with plans to push back against the IARC, including the possible placement of advertisements — in the form of letters from third-party groups — in Capitol Hill newspapers, as well as preparation to use a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing as a venue to get the EPA to reaffirm support for glyphosate. “We will make sure Committee members ask EPA the glyphosate safety question,” Dykes wrote.

[Roundup weed killing products on May 14, 2019. Photo Illustration: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The following year, FTI Government Affairs, one of several consulting firms guiding Monsanto’s political response to the IARC decision, assisted GOP lawmakers with an effort to investigate U.S. support for the IARC.

In one email sent by Todd Rands, a former Monsanto attorney working with FTI, sent a draft of a letter ostensibly written by Rep. Rob Aderholt, R-Ala., a senior lawmaker on the House Appropriations Committee, addressed to Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes for Health. NIH is the government agency responsible for most federal public health research and is the largest funder to the IARC. The letter, in fact, had been written by FTI consultants, along with Rands’s edits, accordingto his deposition testimony.

The FTI-written letter declared that glyphosate “does not cause cancer,” accused the IARC of peddling “bunk science,” and threatened a reassessment of the NIH budget to ensure that the agency is “committed to only funding organizations that produce information and conclusions based on sound science, robust processes, and credible methodology.”

During his deposition, Rands said that he believed it appropriate for Monsanto to draft a letter on behalf of a lawmaker to NIH, calling such ghostwriting a “common practice in Washington.”

It’s not clear what Aderholt’s office did with the FTI-authored letter. Aderholt’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Intercept. On June 2, 2016, Aderholt sent a letter to NIH to request a briefing on the IARC’s designation of glyphosate as a probable carcinogen and “the standards that NIH places on research funded by the U.S. taxpayers,” a letter that mirrored many of the demands in the FTI letter, though it used different language.

More GOP letters and demands for investigation over NIH’s funding for IARC followed. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, then-chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., Chaffetz’s successor as Oversight chair, and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, then-chair of the House Science Committee, all called for inquiries into IARC funding and the designation of glyphosate as a carcinogen.

The Monsanto lobbyists closely conferred with the committees as they honed in on the IARC’s funding. Drew Feeley, an attorney for the GOP staff of the House Oversight Committee, emailed an FTI consultant to explain that his office was working to attach a line to a government budget bill designed “to apply to IARC” in order to slash its funding over the glyphosate issue. “Thanks again for coordinating,” Feeley wrote to the Monsanto consultant. Feeley, notably, is now serving as an attorney with the Council on Environmental Quality, the White House office that oversees environmental policy.

“We expect the House OGR investigation about IARC to expand as they move into the new administration,” wrote Rands, in an update to Monsanto colleagues.

Last year, under Smith, the House Science Committee devoted an entire committee hearing into questioning the IARC, with a focus on its conduct around glyphosate. Smith subsequently sent more letters to cancer researchers in Norway, demanding they “correct the flaws in IARC.” The House Appropriations Committee followed up by cutting $2 million in funding to the IARC, a symbolic move to distance the U.S. from the international body, which relies on a budget of around $40 million from a range of member countries.

THE CONGRESSIONAL OUTREACH was only part of a multifaceted effort to control the backlash sparked by the IARC designation.

In recent years, a great deal of new information has come to light around Monsanto’s work to conceal the potential health risks around glyphosate. Earlier this month, new documents revealed that Monsanto operated a “fusion center” to discredit critics of the company, including former Reuters journalist Carey Gillam, who has written extensively about glyphosate. The operation even monitored and considered legal action again singer Neil Young, a critic of Monsanto.

Le Monde, the French newspaper, published an award-winning investigation on the controversy, referring to the Monsanto-run campaign to discredit the IARC as an effort to “intimidate” the cancer research center.

A separate cache of litigation files, released in May, revealed that Monsanto also contracted with Hakluyt, a corporate intelligence firm, to keep close tabs on political elites in Washington. The company consulted with senior Trump and EPA officials, and confirmed that the administration would support Monsanto on glyphosate issues. “We have Monsanto’s back on pesticide regulation,” a domestic policy adviser in the White House told Hakluyt.

[pixA building on the campus of Monsanto headquarters in St. Louis on May 23, 2016. Photo: Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty Images

The last year has exposed other cloak-and-dagger tactics. The company was criticized for ghostwriting scientific studies on the safety of glyphosate, which were presented as independent research. At the San Francisco civil trial over glyphosate, an FTI consultant working for Monsanto was caught posing as a journalist working for the BBC and another British outlet.

And in 2017, one of the most stunning disclosures revealed that a senior EPA staffer, Jess Rowland, had quietly tipped Monsanto off to the fact that federal agencies had sought to reevaluate the safety of glyphosate, boasting to the company that he could “kill” federal investigations into glyphosate. Shortly before a crucial European Union vote on glyphosate products, the EPA suddenly released a report declaring the safety of the product. The document was later taken down because it had not yet been completed. One Monsanto official relayed to a colleague that Rowland had told him, “If I can kill this I should get a medal,” in regards to the glyphosate review conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a department of Health and Human Services.

After leaving the EPA, Rowland went to work in the private sector, consulting for chemical companies.

There’s also a revolving door between lawmakers supporting Monsanto and professionals working on behalf of the company. Shortly after retiring from Congress this year, following his investigation of the IARC, Lamar Smith took a job at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a lobbying firm that represents Bayer-Monsanto’s interests in Washington.

Correction, August 23, 12:00 p.m.

This story has been updated to clarify that Hardeman’s case was in federal court and that Rowland’s comments about killing a federal study of glyphosate referred to ASTDR.

Update, August 23, 2:30 p.m.

After publication, Bayer sent the following statement: “None of the documents cherry-picked by plaintiffs’ lawyers and their surrogates contradict the findings of the extensive body of science and conclusions of leading health regulators that glyphosate-based herbicides are safe when used as directed and that glyphosate is not carcinogenic. Instead, they show that Monsanto’s activities were intended to ensure there was a fair, accurate and science-based dialogue about the company and its products in response to significant misinformation. We take the safety of our products and our reputation very seriously and work to ensure that everyone – from regulators to customers to other stakeholders – has accurate and balanced information to make decisions about our products.”

li links to range res?

Patrick Creighton, AEA Communications Director, Worked For Bush And Pennsylvania Republicans. Patrick Creighton was the special assistant to Samuel T. Mok, the chief financial officer at the Department of Labor from 2004 to 2006. He then worked as a spokesman for oil and natural gas advocate Rep. John Peterson (R-PA) from 2006 to 2009, worked to elect Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA), then joined Thompson’s office until May 2009. [Institute for Energy Research, Legistorm]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-creighton-454a376?trk=pub-pbmap

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2009/08/22/174407/dirty-energy-town-hall/

aug 09 bus tour:

the American Energy Alliance (AEA), a new polluter front group, is touring the nation to smear President Barack Obama’s clean energy reform agenda. Employees riding the “American Energy Express” bus are spreading the conservative lies that the American Clean Energy and Security Act will “cripple our sluggish economy.” AEA is the 501 c(4) offshoot of the Institute for Energy Research, a right-wing oil-industry think tank run by Robert Bradley, a former speechwriter for Kenneth Lay. E&E News reports that AEA’s “Energy Town Hall” bus tour pictures workers in hard hats:

The American Energy Alliance, which is affiliated with the conservative Institute for Energy Research, has begun a four-week bus tour to county fairs, sporting events and public meetings in several coal-reliant states. Representatives of the group will travel in a large blue bus carrying the slogan “Stop the National Energy Tax, Save American Jobs” and a picture of workers in hard hats. They will cross Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia. Yesterday, AEA officials participated in a rally with another group, Americans for Prosperity, in Zanesville, Ohio; a day earlier, they visited a county fair in western Pennsylvania.

In fact, by attacking legislation that addresses climate change and our national dependence on fossil fuels, AEA is preventing a clean-energy economic boom. Laughably, AEA claims it has “no ties to any political party“:

AEA has no ties to any political party, and it has no interest in supporting the agenda of any particular political party.

AEA may be telling the truth that it has “no interest in supporting the agenda of any particular political party” — its only interest seems to be blocking progressive reform by spreading lies and distortions. However, AEA is tightly connected to the Republican Party and right-wing oil interests. In fact, all of its employees are former House Republican staffers:

Thomas J. Pyle, AEA President, Is A Oil Lobbyist And DeLay Operative. Before joining the Institute for Energy Research and the American Energy Alliance, Pyle worked as a lobbyist for the right-wing oil giant Koch Industries, first in-house starting in 2001, and then at the Rhoads Group. In 2008 Pyle became a lobbyist for the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. Previously, Pyle served as policy analyst for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), Majority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives and as staff director for the GOP Congressional Western Caucus. Pyle started as a legislative assistant for radical anti-environmentalists Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) and Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA). [Institute for Energy Research, Center for Public Integrity]

...

Managing Director

FTI Consulting

March 2014 – Present (2 years 2 months)

FTI Consulting

Senior Director

FTI Consulting

March 2012 – March 2014 (2 years 1 month)

FTI Consulting

Vice President

FTI Consulting

July 2010 – March 2012 (1 year 9 months)

Institute for Energy Research

Communications Director

Institute for Energy Research

May 2009 – June 2010 (1 year 2 months)

U.S. House of Representatives

Communications Director

U.S. House of Representatives

2006 – 2009 (3 years)

pat c scrape:

Ryan Clancy

Managing Director at FTI Consulting Strategic Communications

Ana Heeren

Senior Director at FTI Consulting

Lawrence Pacheco

Seasoned strategic communications consultant at FTI Consulting

Brian Kennedy

Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting - Strategic Communications

FTI Consulting, Inc. is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations protect and enhance enterprise value in an increasingly complex legal, regulatory and economic environment. With more than 3,700 employees located in 22 countries, FTI Consulting professionals work closely with clients to anticipate, illuminate and overcome complex business challenges in areas such as investigations, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory issues, reputation management and restructuring.

Brian Kennedy is a senior managing director and global head of the Energy & Natural Resources Sector in FTI's Strategic Communications division. In his capacity as a global sector leader, he oversees a team of financial, corporate, issues and crisis communications professionals who help clients develop and execute strategies around operational crises, investigations, transactions, shareholder activism, major litigation, legislative and regulatory challenges, and other threats to enterprise value.

Experience

FTI Consulting

Global Head, Energy & Natural Resources Sector

FTI Consulting

January 2009 – Present (7 years 4 months)Washington D.C. Metro Area

Institute for Energy Research

Senior Vice President

Institute for Energy Research

January 2008 – August 2009 (1 year 8 months)

Press Secretary

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), U.S. House of Representatives

December 2006 – January 2008 (1 year 2 months)

Deputy Chief of Staff & Director of Communications

Committee on Resources, U.S. House of Representatives

March 2003 – December 2006 (3 years 10 months)

Legislative Correspondent

U.S. Representative George Radanovich (R-CA)

November 1998 – December 1999 (1 year 2 months)

James McInerney

Senior Director at FTI Consulting

Experience

FTI Consulting

Senior Director

FTI Consulting

October 2012 – Present (3 years 7 months)Washington D.C. Metro Area

I advise senior executives at energy companies on business strategy related to energy assets, transactions, and interactions with government regulators. I help companies and coalitions navigate, and overcome, political and public affairs risks that threaten projects’ viability and affect bottom lines. I have worked with some of the largest energy producers in the world, including foreign corporations seeking to participate in the North American energy boom. My work at FTI includes helping companies adapt and maneuver in the rapidly evolving Global LNG market. I also have extensive experience managing energy companies’ relationships with foreign host governments and helping energy projects achieve regulatory approval without undue delay.

ExxonMobil

International Public & Government Affairs Advisor

ExxonMobil

August 2010 – October 2012 (2 years 3 months)Houston, Texas Area

At ExxonMobil I helped the company mitigate political risk and improve relations with host governments in East Africa, Southeast Asia, the Mideast, and the Americas. In various roles at ExxonMobil I was embedded with regional production operations teams and also worked extensively with the global LNG team on issues ranging from individual project permitting to international LNG portfolio strategy.

Garten Rothkopf

Climate Policy Consultant

Garten Rothkopf

2010 – 2010 (less than a year)

U.S. House of Representatives

Communications Director/Legislative Aide

U.S. House of Representatives

January 2004 – August 2008 (4 years 8 months)Washington D.C. Metro Area

Worked on legislative policy and communications strategy for Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher and Congressman Dennis Cardoza.

Jackson Dunn

Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting

Elizabeth Alexander

Managing Director at FTI Consulting Strategic Communications

Matthew Dempsey

Senior Director at FTI Consulting

Managing Director

FTI Consulting

January 2013 – Present (3 years 4 months)Washington D.C. Metro Area

Communications Director Environment and Public Works Committee Republican Staff

US Senate

March 2009 – January 2013 (3 years 11 months)

Organizational Director

Allard for Senate

2001 – 2002 (1 year)

Steve Everley

Managing Director at FTI Consulting

Travis Windle

Managing Director at FTI Consulting

not staffer:

Marc Cunningham is Managing Director of the Energy & Natural Resources practice for FTI Consulting’s Strategic Communications business and is based in Houston, TX. FTI Consulting, Inc. is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations protect and enhance enterprise value in an increasingly complex legal, regulatory and economic environment. With more than 4,400+ employees in 26 countries on six continents, FTI Consulting has segments and practice areas in Corporate Finance/Restructuring, Economic Consulting, Forensic & Litigation Consulting, Technology and Strategic Communications.

In this capacity, Marc advises clients on critical communications and strategies facing enterprises during significant moments of change including mergers and acquisitions, divestments, IPOs, restructuring and financial issues, shareholder activism, investor relations and proxy advisory.

Specialties:

Experience

Shell

Manager, NBD and Deal Delivery | Upstream Americas

Shell

January 2014 – January 2015 (1 year 1 month)Houston, Texas Area

Shell

Business Development Manager, LNG Americas

Shell

January 2012 – January 2014 (2 years 1 month)Houston, Texas Area

Shell

Manager, Portfolio Americas - Downstream Strategy & Portfolio

Shell

June 2007 – January 2012 (4 years 8 months)Houston, Texas Area

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

Investor Relations Manager

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

September 2006 – May 2007 (9 months)

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

Sr. Staff Corporate Development Advisor

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

February 2006 – September 2006 (8 months)

• Member of deal team responsible for the acquisitions of Kerr-McGee and Western Gas Resources

Noble Energy

Offshore Finance Manager

Noble Energy

July 2004 – January 2006 (1 year 7 months)Houston, Texas Area

Noble Energy

Coordinator, Business Development

Noble Energy

January 2003 – June 2004 (1 year 6 months)Houston, Texas Area

Noble Energy

Business Analyst

Noble Energy

February 2002 – January 2003 (1 year)Houston, Texas Area

RBC Capital Markets

Analyst, Global Investment Banking - Energy

RBC Capital Markets

January 2001 – November 2001 (11 months)Houston, Texas Area

RBC Capital Markets

Analyst, Global Equity Resarch Group - Energy

RBC Capital Markets

February 2000 – January 2001 (1 year)Houston, Texas Area

Contact: Marc Morano (marc_morano@epw.senate.gov) Matt Dempsey (matthew_dempsey@epw.senate.gov)

Republicans challenge Steyer's credibility

Steyer has also seen his name mentioned in the conservatives' discussion of the Oregon allegations. One of the Californian's nonprofit groups gave funds to the San Francisco-based Energy Foundation, which in turn paid a portion of Hayes' fellowship fees at the Clean Economy Development Center of Washington, D.C., one of the contracts under scrutiny. But those ties are unlikely to dissuade other Democrats from accepting contributions from other Steyer-backed organizations, such as NextGen Climate.

"It's not going to keep Democrats from wanting to have many millions of dollars spent in their respective Senate race or House race," Skelley said.

But Matt Dempsey, a former aide to Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and senior director at FTI Consulting, suggested that Steyer could see a ripple effect from the investigation.

"The real issue here is Tom Steyer's involvement and what this means for him moving forward in 2016," Dempsey said.

"This just adds more fuel to the fire with how closely these environmental groups" have become to local and state government, Dempsey added. "It affects Steyer's credibility."

Still, others predicted that the scandal will blow over well before the 2016 election.

"It remains to be seen, but based on the allegations as we've heard them, it will be difficult for Republicans to explain them and sustain anger about them for a 20-month period," said Josh Kardon, an energy lobbyist at Capitol Counsel and former chief of staff to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden (D).

Not that Republicans won't try.

Inhofe said yesterday that the Oregon allegations should prompt closer analysis of the renewable energy industry and climate change policies.

"This is just another example of environmental activist groups attempting to influence policy under a veil of secrecy and one more reason these groups merit additional scrutiny," Inhofe said in a statement. "Beneath the violation of public trust by the Oregon state officials, we have far-left foundations funneling significant funds to an environmental group to orchestrate this type of activism without any public disclosure."

In the meantime, despite Kitzhaber's decision to abort his fourth term in office, Democrats in Oregon have vowed to push ahead with at least one policy initiative that Hayes has championed: a measure to extend Oregon's Clean Fuels Program, which would otherwise expire at the end of the year.

Oregon's Democratic-controlled Senate approved the bill Tuesday despite an attempt by Republicans to put the measure before voters directly, citing the ongoing criminal investigations (ClimateWire, Feb. 18). The bill next goes to the state House, which Democrats similarly control.

William J. Nolan is a Senior Managing Director in the FTI Consulting Corporate Finance/Restructuring practice and is based in Charlotte. Mr. Nolan has worked in all areas of corporate recovery, including working with senior management in business turnarounds and corporate bankruptcy. He has more than twenty years of diverse financial consulting and management experience.

Mr. Nolan has considerable experience working with senior management teams in the areas of financial and operational restructuring, loan workouts and business planning. He has assisted management in developing business plans, devising short to medium term financial strategies and projections for use in troubled debt restructures, and implementing controls over cash expenditures, overhead and operating costs.

Mr. Nolan’s diverse background extends into financial services; manufacturing; restaurants; healthcare, and real estate wherein he has served as advisor to companies, and advised secured creditors, and unsecured creditors committees in out-of-court and in bankruptcy distressed situations. Mr. Nolan has considerable mortgage banking experience and has been very active in the reorganization of many sub-prime lending concerns.

Mr. Nolan also has extensive experience in working in international insolvencies and workouts. As a member of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) United Kingdom insolvency practice, Mr. Nolan gained experience in the specialized area of UK insolvency, working as a receiver and administrator. Mr. Nolan’s UK experience included managing and selling companies, including companies associated with Polly Peck International, one of the UK’s largest ever insolvencies.

Prior to its acquisition by FTI Consulting, Mr. Nolan served as a partner in the U.S. division of PwC’s Business Recovery Services group. Prior to joining PwC, Mr. Nolan held an executive financial management position with the Pizza Hut division of PepsiCo. As a financial manager of over 300 Pizza Huts in the state of Ohio, Mr. Nolan was responsible for identifying under-performing stores and working with local management to improve their performance as well as developing and implementing plans to eliminate excess operating costs and preparing and executing annual operating and financial budgets.

Mr. Nolan co-authored two articles in the American Banker entitled “The Fight for Survival: Sub-prime Lending, Where to From Here” and “At What Point Are Servicing Rights Born?”

Mr. Nolan holds an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in economics from the University of Delaware. He is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors and the International Bankruptcy Association. Mr. Nolan served as treasurer of the Delaware Valley Chapter of Turnaround Management Association.

CLIMATE:

Steyer and allies to visit White House, as GOP roasts their report

Elana Schor, E&E reporter

Greenwire: Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer today stepped back into the Capitol Hill spotlight with a new report on climate change's economic risks that netted him a White House sit-down and fresh jabs from Republicans as well as industry.

Unveiled by Steyer, ex-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson this morning, the "Risky Business" report warns that federal inaction in the face of global warming's escalating on-the-ground dangers has imposed an "unfunded mandate" upon businesses and localities to prepare for the worst. Paulson and Steyer are set to join other "risk committee" reviewers of the report at a meeting with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew tomorrow, a White House official confirmed this morning.

"We need strong policy action to prevent the worst outcomes, and that takes action by a national government," Paulson told the media alongside Steyer, Bloomberg and other reviewers this morning. The trio collaborated on the new report, Paulson added, in the hopes "that business will unite and be more active in pressing for policy change from the federal government."

Even as Steyer presses an apolitical case against climate change through "Risky Business" -- which projects coastal property losses in excess of $100 billion if emissions continue on their current track, driving sea levels higher -- he is gearing up to spend upward of $50 million on seven midterm election races where environmental protection might prove a top-tier issue (E&E Daily, May 22).

The former hedge fund manager routed $7.1 million to his NextGen Climate Action Committee between early April and early June for those purposes, according to Federal Election Commission reports, with noted conservationist Larry Linden and the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees union each contributing $100,000.

NextGen's political committee spent $5.6 million during that period, FEC disclosures show, the bulk of it going to another super political action committee that raises and spends unlimited funds to support Democratic Senate candidates.

Steyer's campaign-trail activity while he advances the nonpartisan message of "Risky Business" did not escape notice in the GOP today. A top Senate Republican aide circulated early reports of Steyer's White House visit to charge Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) with hypocrisy for blasting the conservative Koch brothers but supporting the wealthy green activist.

"Sen. Reid will attack this billionaire's access to politicians, right?" Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), posted on Twitter. Reid "is totally cool with this," Stewart added.

Former Senate GOP aide Matt Dempsey of FTI Consulting, whose firm represents multiple industry clients, hammered Steyer and Bloomberg for touting a renewables-heavy solution to climate change, given their difference of opinion on the emissions benefits of phasing out coal in favor of natural gas (Greenwire, Apr. 30).

"This is a political campaign orchestrated to advance a radical no-energy-but-green-energy ideology," Dempsey said in a statement. "The greatest risk facing our communities and our economy is the potential for elected leaders to actually embrace this rhetoric without doing their homework."

In addition to those potshots, the "Risky Business" report received its fair share of hosannas from groups that have long pushed for federal action on climate change. Kim Glas, executive director of the labor-environmentalist BlueGreen Alliance, said in a statement that the report's "absolutely sobering" conclusions point to the need for a national carbon price.

In addition to tomorrow's meeting with Steyer and Paulson, White House advisers John Podesta and Valerie Jarrett plan today to host insurance industry officials for a discussion of extreme weather's economic toll. President Obama also plans to mark the one-year anniversary of his climate change speech at Georgetown University with an address to the League of Conservation Voters' annual dinner tomorrow night.

Twitter: @eschor | Email: eschor@eenews.net

wiki

FTI Consulting is a business advisory firm headquartered in Washington, DC. The company specializes in the fields of corporate finance and restructuring, economic consulting, forensic and litigation consulting, strategic communications and technology. Founded as Forensic Technologies International Ltd in 1982, FTI Consulting employs more than 4,400 staff in 26 countries.[1]

The firm was involved in the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers[2] and General Motors bankruptcies[3] and the investigation into the Bernard Madoff fraud.[4] As of September 2011, FTI Consulting had the largest restructuring business in the U.S.[5] In 2009, FTI Consulting was listed as one of the 100 fastest growing U.S. companies.[6]

Partnerships and Sponsorships[edit]

FTI Consulting has established partnerships with companies and organizations in several fields. It is a member of the World Economic Forum.[7] Some of the company's senior and regional leaders participate in the Forum's meetings, participating in several projects related to anti-corruption, energy and professional services principles.[8]

FTI Consulting is also a corporate sponsor of the New York Yankees.[3] In addition to this, FTI Consulting sponsors the professional golfers Charles Howell III[9] and Webb Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open Champion and 2014 Ryder Cup team member.[9]

Acquisitions[

The company added over 1,000 employees to its Forensic and Litigation Consulting ("FLC") division since the passing of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which excluded auditors from providing consulting work to their public clients.[10] FTI Consulting purchased PwC's U.S. Business Recovery Services Division ("BRS") in 2002, which at the time was the largest provider of bankruptcy, turnaround and business restructuring services in the United States.[11] The company purchased KPMG's Dispute Advisory Services in 2003.[12]

FTI acquired Ringtail Solutions Group in 2005.[13] Ringtail's signature product, the Ringtail Discovery Software Suite, provides e-discovery and document management tools to assist corporations and law firms during litigation engagements.

The company purchased Chicago-based Compass Lexecon in 2006.[14] The same year, the company acquired the London based communications consultancy Financial Dynamics ("FD").[15]FD is now referred to as the Strategic Communications Division of FTI.

In 2008, the Company purchased the Schonbraun McCann Group, a consulting firm based in New York and leading advisor to the Real Estate industry.

As of October 2011, the company has maintained the Compass Lexecon name.

In January 2014, FTI Consulting acquired London-based TLG Partners, which produced a series of annual thought leader indexes.[16][17][18]

CIC MAY NOT BE ALL

HARDLY ANY, SEE COC?

United States Chamber of Commerce Integrated Web Strategy 2008 $1,225,909.00

United States Chamber of Commerce Presentation Testing 2008 $452,450.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Crosscut Strategies 2018 $251,005.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Crosscut Strategies 2018 $451,005.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Greentech Media 2014 $161,363.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Greentech Media 2013 $206,338.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Blue Worldwide 2011 $410,790.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Tiger Communications 2011 $275,915.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Forum One Communications 2011 $160,200.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Tiger Communications 2010 $272,164.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Blake & Company 2010 $141,343.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Tiger Communications 2009 $277,035.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Pillsbury Winthrop 2009 $143,719.00

Solar Energy Industries Association Tiger Communications 2008 $282,561.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Bully Pullpit Interactive LLC 2018 $1,297,500.00

Nuclear Energy Institute APCO Worldwide 2017 $5,801,384.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Bully Pulpit Interactive 2017 $1,129,201.00

Nuclear Energy Institute APCO Worldwide 2016 $1,152,606.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Hill+Knowlton 2016 $1,624,600.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Kivvit 2016 $4,887,451.00

p 4

Nuclear Energy Institute Kivvit 2015 $7,231,176.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Hill+Knowlton 2015 $1,997,011.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Smith & Harroff Inc 2015 $931,512.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Hill+Knowlton 2014 $2,194,235.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Potomac Communications Group 2014 $486,715.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Smith & Harroff Inc 2014 $1,602,939.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Smith & Harroff Inc 2013 $1,876,578.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Hill+Knowlton 2013 $1,796,853.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Potomac Communications Group 2013 $462,956.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Hill+Knowlton 2012 $4,964,386.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Burson-Marsteller 2012 $294,414.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Smith & Harroff Inc 2012 $4,463,288.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Potomac Communications Group 2012 $491,602.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Smith & Harroff Inc 2011 $4,720,107.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Hill+Knowlton 2011 $4,107,578.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Luntz Global LLC 2011 $547,256.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Smith & Harroff Inc 2010 $1,867,491.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Hill+Knowlton 2010 $2,128,574.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Potomac Communications Group 2010 $403,107.00

Nuclear Energy Institute Smith & Harroff Inc 2009 $2,221,698.00

...page 8

National Association of Manufacturers DCI Group 2016 $1,851,461.00

National Association of Manufacturers Edelman 2016 $1,199,953.00

National Association of Manufacturers DCI Group 2015 $3,424,574.00

National Association of Manufacturers FTI Consulting 2015 $7,942,891.00

National Association of Manufacturers Mentzer Media Services 2015 $1,867,890.00

National Association of Manufacturers Democracy Data & Communications 2015 $1,582,784.00

National Association of Manufacturers Hamilton Place Strategies 2015 $1,441,979.00

National Association of Manufacturers DCI Group 2014 $1,770,200.00

National Association of Manufacturers Target Enterprises 2014 $1,425,743.00

National Association of Manufacturers IMGE 2014 $916,645.00

National Association of Manufacturers DCI Group 2013 $1,770,200.00

National Association of Manufacturers Multi Media Services 2012 $2,587,236.00

National Association of Manufacturers Edelman 2013 $1,610,413.00

National Association of Manufacturers Target Enterprises 2012 $1,443,489.00

National Association of Manufacturers Edelman 2012 $1,080,878.00

National Association of Manufacturers Gallatin Public Affairs 2012 $553,190.00

National Association of Manufacturers Target Enterprises 2010 $3,748,483.00

National Association of Manufacturers Target Enterprises 2011 $3,800,000.00

National Association of Manufacturers Cove Strategies 2010 $165,000.00

National Association of Manufacturers Target Enterprises 2009 $4,400,000.00

p 9

National Association of Manufacturers DCI Group 2008 $2,543,079.00

National Association of Manufacturers FleishmanHillard 2008 $402,500.00

Interstate Natural Gas Association of America Bracewell & Giuliani 2017 $204,109.00

Interstate Natural Gas Association of America Icemiller Strategies 2017 $120,000.00

Growth Energy GRP Buying 2018 $2,019,657.00

Growth Energy RCR 2018 $2,803,637.00

Growth Energy Plus Communications 2018 $1,826,908.00

Growth Energy NASCAR 2018 $2,000,000.00

Growth Energy NASCAR 2017 $3,500,000.00

Growth Energy NASCAR 2016 $5,600,000.00

Growth Energy FP1 Public Affairs 2017 $2,494,435.00

Growth Energy FP1 Public Affairs 2016 $2,464,619.00

Growth Energy RCR 2016 $3,963,615.00

Growth Energy RCR 2015 $2,131,950.00

Growth Energy NASCAR 2015 $5,600,000.00

Growth Energy America's Renewable Future 2015 $1,250,000.00

Growth Energy FUELSAMERICA 2015 $1,000,000.00

Growth Energy NASCAR 2014 $5,600,000.00

Growth Energy RCR 2014 $2,731,782.00

Growth Energy Americans United For Change 2014 $1,582,450.00

p 11

Edison Electric Institute Net Communications 2015 $750,599.00

Edison Electric Institute Sloane & Company 2015 $391,995.00

Edison Electric Institute Edelman 2013 $1,091,122.00

Edison Electric Institute Democracy Data & Communications 2014 $1,326,106.00

Edison Electric Institute R&R Partners 2013 $515,811.00

Edison Electric Institute Edelman 2012 $683,183.00

Edison Electric Institute Democracy Data & Communications 2012 $548,163.00

Edison Electric Institute GC Strategic Advocacy 2009 $543,940.00

American Wind Energy Association IMGE 2017 $727,470.00

Edison Electric Institute GC Strategic Advocacy 2008 $1,100,597.00

American Wind Energy Association Capital Counsel 2013 $250,328.00

American Wind Energy Association Revolution Media Group 2011 $1,046,395.00

American Wind Energy Association Elmendorf Strategies 2014 $180,000.00

American Wind Energy Association Rosen Group 2009 $334,995.00

American Wind Energy Association Revolution Media Group 2012 $1,722,452.00

American Petroleum Institute GSD&M 2018 $31,989,809.00

American Wind Energy Association New Media 2011 $744,274.00

American Petroleum Institute DDC Advocacy 2018 $7,735,244.00

American Petroleum Institute Pool House 2018 $3,299,340.00

American Petroleum Institute GSD&M 2017 $30,396,324.00

p12

American Petroleum Institute Blue Advertising 2016 $24,355,069.00

American Petroleum Institute Democracy Data & Communications 2017 $6,922,626.00

American Petroleum Institute Advocates Inc 2017 $4,039,363.00

American Petroleum Institute FleishmanHillard 2016 $9,515,924.00

American Petroleum Institute Democracy Data & Communications 2016 $6,738,577.00

American Petroleum Institute Advocates Inc 2016 $4,090,899.00

American Petroleum Institute Blue Advertising 2015 $26,890,598.00

American Petroleum Institute Designated Market Media 2015 $10,840,597.00

American Petroleum Institute FleishmanHillard 2015 $18,255,218.00

American Petroleum Institute Democracy Data & Communications 2015 $7,466,543.00

American Petroleum Institute Blue Advertising 2014 $28,272,065.00

American Petroleum Institute FleishmanHillard 2014 $17,254,064.00

American Petroleum Institute Designated Market Media 2014 $8,144,795.00

American Petroleum Institute Democracy Data & Communications 2014 $6,961,184.00

American Petroleum Institute Blue Advertising 2013 $32,834,698.00

American Petroleum Institute Designated Market Media 2013 $6,124,143.00

American Petroleum Institute FleishmanHillard 2013 $23,941,600.00

American Petroleum Institute Democracy Data & Communications 2013 $5,553,397.00

American Petroleum Institute Edelman 2012 $51,917,692.00

American Petroleum Institute FleishmanHillard 2012 $22,782,020.00

p13

American Petroleum Institute Designated Market Media 2012 $5,289,804.00

American Petroleum Institute Democracy Data & Communications 2012 $5,529,594.00

American Petroleum Institute Advocates Inc 2011 $5,430,224.00

American Petroleum Institute Edelman 2011 $68,306,448.00

American Petroleum Institute FleishmanHillard 2011 $4,846,056.00

American Petroleum Institute Democracy Data & Communications 2011 $4,089,200.00

American Petroleum Institute Edelman 2010 $63,228,379.00

American Petroleum Institute Advocates Inc 2010 $3,843,563.00

American Petroleum Institute Edelman 2009 $68,732,735.00

American Petroleum Institute Advocates Inc 2009 $3,138,667.00

American Petroleum Institute Edelman 2008 $75,207,455.00

American Petroleum Institute DC Navigators 2008 $2,300,000.00

American Natural Gas Alliance Glover Park 2014 $2,597,208.00

American Natural Gas Alliance Porter Novelli 2014 $683,645.00

American Natural Gas Alliance Porter Novelli 2013 $1,171,558.00

American Natural Gas Alliance Glover Park 2013 $2,777,189.00

American Natural Gas Alliance Gladstein Neandross & Associates 2013 $934,016.00

American Natural Gas Alliance Glover Park 2012 $2,963,161.00

American Natural Gas Alliance Dewey Square 2012 $738,957.00

American Natural Gas Alliance Dewey Square 2011 $1,475,506.00

p 15

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Just Add Firewater 2018 $771,978.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Singer Associates 2017 $4,080,436.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Edelman 2016 $1,595,348.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Dezenhall Resources 2017 $1,500,546.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Edelman 2014 $4,011,828.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Edelman 2015 $2,996,049.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers American Energy Alliance 2014 $350,000.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Edelman 2013 $3,034,064.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers American Energy Alliance 2013 $450,000.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Consumer Energy Alliance 2013 $522,500.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers American Energy Alliance 2012 $895,000.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Consumer Energy Alliance 2012 $790,000.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Creative Response Concepts 2012 $722,205.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Edelman 2012 $638,494.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Consumer Energy Alliance 2011 $1,045,000.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Prisim Public Affairs 2010 $250,194.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Eletricity DCI Group 2018 $247,277.00

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Bevendge Seay 2009 $168,678.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity DCI Group 2017 $490,770.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity Democracy Data & Communications 2016 $1,093,877.00

p 16

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity DCI Group 2016 $673,111.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity Stateside Associates 2016 $252,045.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity DCI Group 2015 $1,583,262.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity Causeway Soultions 2015 $513,891.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity Democracy Data & Communications 2015 $387,902.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity Blueprint Communications 2015 $300,000.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity Real Clear Holdings 2015 $346,000.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity DCI Group 2014 $2,083,525.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity NJI Media 2014 $313,775.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP 2014 $240,399.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity Blueprint Communications 2014 $240,000.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity JDA Frontline 2013 $650,108.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity DCI Group 2013 $2,811,881.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity White and Partners 2012 $16,169,526.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity New Media Strategies 2012 $4,018,884.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity Hawthorn Group 2012 $1,591,098.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity DCI Group 2012 $1,187,219.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity White and Partners 2011 $23,943,108.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity Hawthorn Group 2011 $2,008,860.00

American Coalition on Clean Coal Electricity R&R Partners 2011 $1,626,678.00

end?

http://fracktoids.blogspot.com/2012/07/energy-in-depth-eid-gasroots.html

July 18, 2012

Energy-in-Depth (EID): The “GAS”roots

Energy-in-Depth (EID): The “GAS”roots

Marcellus Shale Players

On January 6, 2012 a Fracking and Nuisance Litigation meeting took place in Montrose, Pennsylvania.

Energy-In-Depth’s (EID) - Northeast Marcellus Initiative Field Directors Bill desRosiersand Nicole Jacobs, along with Helen Humphries, Senior Corporate Communications Specialists for the Williams Company, attempted to attend the meeting. They were asked to leave, as the purpose of the meeting was to meet with people wishing to seek litigation against the Natural Gas industry and share information on this matter.

The following day, “Bill” desRosiers published a blog entry on the EID-Northeast Marcellus Initiative website entitled“You’re Not Welcome Here” – This Is Transparency?”.

Approximately, 2 weeks later, an article appeared on We Are Powershift website, entitled “From Township Planning Consultant to Fracker: Tom Shepstone” by Alexander Lotorto. EID-Northeast Marcellus Initiative followed up immediately with “Who Is Alex Lotorto, Well Street Occupier?” by Giles Howard, a Guest Blogger.

I would not be surprised to find an EID blog entry entitled “Who is Dory Hippauf?”, to appear within hours of publication. Who is Dory Hippauf? I’m a 56yr old woman, I moved to a small town in the Back Mountain area of Northeast Pennsylvania about 14 years ago from Massachusetts. I am the Research Committee Chair for the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition of Luzerne County. I hold no degrees in economics, the corporate world, or politics. I have an AA in Graphic Design, and an AS in CAD drafting. I am currently employed as a CAD Drafter. I have a great deal of curiosity in how corporations have influenced our government and our lives, and this led me to start “Connecting the Dots”. All the information I have and will present is easily found on the internet using Google, and I do cite my sources.

In the interest of transparency, Part 3 of the Connecting the Dots series will be asking “Who Is EID”.

According to SourceWatch "Energy in Depth (EID) is a pro-oil-and-gas drilling industry front group formed by the American Petroleum Institute, the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and dozens of additional industry organizations for the purpose of denouncing legislation proposed by Colorado U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette to regulate underground hydraulic fracturing fluids."

In 2009, EID mounted a fierce “rebuttal” campaign against the documentary film, GASLAND, by Josh Fox. EID sent a letter to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencesstating Gasland should be ineligible for nomination because it was based on inaccuracies. EID also published several blog entries “debunking” the film.

The funding sources for EID include: Anadarko, BP, Chevron, El Paso Corporation, EnCana, Halliburton, Marathon, Occidental Petroleum, Schlumberger, Shell API, Talisman and XTO Energy.

EID has two satellite branches: EID-Northeast Marcellus Initiative which covers Pennsylvania and New York area, and EID- The Ohio Project which focuses on gas/oil drilling in Ohio. If you have clicked on these links, you will see nice profile pictures, each person’s EID Title, and a “hometown”. The purpose of this is to may you feel more connected to EID, especially if you recognize the hometown, as in “Gee, these are nice people, they are from my home town.” This is a time honored public relations tactic, used by many ad agencies to sell you products, and politicians to make them seem more “likeable”. Public Relation firms know you will be more apt to believe someone who appears to have a connection to you, as opposed to someone you don’t know.

The “grassroots” initiative was launched around May 2011 by EID. According to the website Marcellus Drilling News: “EID has also launched a major new grassroots initiative now spreading from county to county in the region.”

Marcellus Drilling News further states “The program, known as EID’s “Northeast Marcellus Initiative,” calls for the hiring of several full-time organizers charged with engaging and educating the region’s many supporters of the Mighty Marcellus, and providing them with the tools they need to act. Led on the ground by campaign manager and well-known local natural gas advocate Tom Shepstone, the initiative is already up-and-running in several counties across the region, with field organizers now in place in Luzerne, Lycoming and Wayne Counties, Pa. – all with reach into New York State.”

EID is not grassroots. EID’s “GAS”roots extend from the front groups, Corporations, Public Relations, to the halls of Congress.

The Messengers:

The registrant information for the EID website is listed as FD Dittus Communications.Dittus Communications went through various incarnation. FD in Dittus Communications stands for Financial Dynamics. Dittus Communications became known as FD Americas Public Affairs, and later FD Americas was rebranded as FTI Consulting.

FD Americas: A unit of UK-based strategic and financial communications consultancy FD, FD Americas Public Affairs (formerly Dittus Communications) offers public relations, marketing communications, and issue advocacy services. The firm provides the usual corporate services (media relations, corporate communications, and crisis management) plus public affairs services (issues management, legislative strategy, grassroots organizing and coalition building) as well as marketing, creative, and design services. Clients have included Kraft Foods, Dell, the US Department of Energy, and International Paper. The firm was founded in 1993.

FTI Consulting: global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations protect and enhance their enterprise value, today announced that Financial Dynamics (FD), the Strategic Communications practice of FTI Consulting, has adopted the FTI Consulting brand globally. FD now will be known as the Strategic Communications practice of FTI Consulting.

The original founder and CEO of Dittus Communications is Gloria Dittus, and became CEO and President of FD Dittus-Strategic Communications.

Ms Dittus is now the founder of Story Partners. Per Story Partners website: a public affairs firm focused on helping trade associations, corporations and coalitions amplify their story through carefully aligned online and offline campaigns designed to drive public policy debates. (emphasis added)

EID Players:

Lee Fuller is the Executive Director of EID, he is also the Vice President of Government Relations for the Independent Petroleum Association of America. According to Open Secrets, the top industry represented by Mr. Fuller was Oil & Gas.

Regarding Gasland, "The filmmaker alternates between misstating and outright ignoring basic and verifiable facts related to the impact of these activities on the health and welfare of humans, wildlife and the environment," said Lee Fuller, executive director of Energy in Depth (EID), in a letter (pdf) today to the academy.

Jeffery “Jeff” Eschelman is listed as Executive Vice President at EID. In addition to his position at EID he is the Vice President of Public Affairs & Communication at the Independent Petroleum Association of America and former employee of Dittus Communications.

Julia Bell: Researcher at EID, and Public Affairs & Communications Coordinator for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Chris Tucker: EID Team Lead, Spokesperson, and Advisor for – you guessed it – the Independent Petroleum Association of America. Mr. Tucker is more closely associated with the EID-Marcellus Initiative branch as Team Leader and Blogger.

Senior Vice President Oil & Gas: FTI Consulting
Advisor to the Marcellus Shale Coalition
Former Press Secretary/Communications Director for Rep John E Peterson R-PA (Retired at the end of 110^{th Congress)} Rep. **Peterson’s Campaign Donors**for the 2006 campaign:

$10,300:**Devonian Resource**s (Energy Conservation and Management Consultants) Top Single Contributor

$35,500: Oil & Gas Top Industry Sector Contributor

Former Communications Advisor for House Minority Whip Rep Roy Blunt R-MO,(elected as Senator in 2008).

2008 Senate Campaign:

$23,300: Chevron, 2nd highest individual contributor

$128,250: Oil & Gas, 3rd highest industry sector contributor

2010 Senate Campaign:

$32,173: Murray Energy, 15th highest individual contributor

$29,200: Koch Industries, 16th highest individual contributor

$28,800: Exxon Mobil,17th highest individual contributor

$342,050: Oil & Gas, 7th highest industry sector contributor

Dana Bohan: EID Staff Geologist

Junior Associate - Strategic Communications - Energy Sector: FTI Consulting

Steven “Steve” Everly: EID Spokesperson

Assistant Vice President: FTI Consulting Financial Dynamics

The strategic communication division of FTI Consulting, Financial Dynamics helps ensure that its clients’ brand, reputation and market valuation reflect the true worth of their businesses.

Columnist: Townhall.com

Steve Everley is Manager of Policy Research at American Solutions and a contributing author to To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular- Socialist Machine by Newt Gingrich. Prior to joining AmericanSolutions, Everley worked as a research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Kansas and attended graduate school at the University of Southern California. (emphasis added)

Nicole Jacobs: EID- Northeast Marcellus Initiative Field Organizer.

Independent Consultant - Shalenet

Shalenet operates through a grant from Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration to provide the gas industry with a local workforce. Key partners include 15 Workforce Investment areas (not named), focusing on Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and New York, PA Independent Oil an Gas Association, Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) the Veterans Administration, Allegheny Conference on Community Development, Broome Community College, Eastern Gateway Community College, Pennsylvania College of Technology, West Virginia Northern Community College and Westmoreland County Community College.

ShaleNet operates out of Pennsylvania College of Technology which is affiliated with Penn State.

Brian Kennedy Per: NATURAL GAS: BP, others push against federal regulation of fracturing, Brian Kennedy is cited as a spokesman for Energy In Depth. Although, Mr. Kennedy is cited as spokesman in this and others articles, there is no sign of him the the Energy In Depth websites.

"This language seems to be a restatement and endorsement of policies and procedures the industry has been following for decades, as mandated by federal, state and local laws," said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for Energy In Depth. "To the extent the language helps clarify the existing framework and highlight its overwhelming success to date, it could be a valuable educational tool moving forward." (emphasis added)

Senior Managing Director Strategic Communications: FTI Consulting
Former Senior Managing Director: FD Americas-Public Affairs
Former Communications Director: former Rep. Richard Pombo R-CA

Rep. Richard Pombo :{l:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{ost his re-election bid in 2006 to Jerry McNerney.:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:

"Rep. Richard Pombo's loss represents the most significant electoral victory the environmental movement has seen in decades," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. "It should now be clear to all that we have the political strength to take on and defeat extreme anti-environmental politicians."

Environmentalists opposed Pombo for efforts to rewrite species protections and increase oil drilling in Alaska and off-shore while fundraising from industry groups. He also faced questions about ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in a congressional influence peddling scandal.

2006 Campaign:

$34,800: Chevron, 2nd highest individual contributor

$197,648: Oil & Gas, 4th highest industry sector contributor

Former Aide - House Committee on Natural Resources
Staff Member – Rep. John Boehner R-OH

Rep. John Boehner R-OH was Minority Leader in 2008. He became House Speaker in 2010.

Campaign 2010:

$58,100: Murray Energy, 2nd highest individual contributor

$47,800: FirstEnergy Corp, 3rd highest individual contributor

$369,772: Electric Utilities, 4th highest industry sector contributor

$185,650: Oil & Gas, 14th highest industry sector contributor

Co-Founder – Institute for Energy Research, DC office

Rhonda Reda: EID – The Ohio Project, Executive Director

Executive Director: Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP)

Ms. Reda currently serves on the Public Outreach Committee of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC)and the Colonial Drake Well Historical “Oil150” Steering Committee. She is an active member of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Ohio Geological Society. Recently, Ms. Reda served on the White House Task Force on Energy Education, and has received numerous state and national awards for OOGEEP’s efforts including: AAPG Eastern Section’s Presidential Award for Public Outreach, Friend of Science Award from the Science Council of Ohio, EPA’s Ohio Environmental Education Award for Outstanding Program, World Oil Runner Up for Best Public Outreach Program, Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Minerals Education Award, and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission’s Public Outreach Stewardship Award. Ms. Reda is a graduate of both Ohio University and Edison State College.

Executive Director – Ohio Oil and Gas Foundation

Thomas Stewart: EID – The Ohio Project, Executive Vice President

Member: Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission
Executive Vice President and Board of Trustees: Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA)

Travis Windle : EID Presenter. Although Travis Windle’s name does not appear on any of the EID websites, he was cited as a presenter on a powerpoint presentation: THE MARCELLUS SHALE: Powering America’s Future,Thanks to Hydraulic Fracturing, dated October 14, 2010, and the email cited is for Mr. Windle at EID.

More recently, Mr. Windle has been cited as Spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coaltion:

“Likewise, Marcellus Shale Coalition Spokesman Travis Windle said the closure of any one well will have little to no impact on those using it for waste disposal.”

Vice President – FTI Consulting
Press Secretary, House Republican Conference - US House of Representatives
Communications Director, House Financial Services Committee - US House of Representatives
Press Secretary – former Rep John E Peterson R-PA (see Chris Tucker for Campaign Contribution Info)
Staff Assistant – former Rep. Melissa Hart R-PA, she was defeated in the 2006 General Election.

2006 Campaign: $17,938: K&L Gates, 4th Highes Individual Contributor.

K&L Gates represents leading global corporations, and growth middle-market companies, capital markets participants and entrepreneurs in every major industry group as well as public sector entities, educational institutions, philanthropic organizations and individuals.

Press Secretary - Rep. Tom Petri R-WI Up for re-election 2012

Committee Assignments:

Education and LaborTransportation and Infrastructure

Leadership PAC: Badger Fund

Every “play” has it’s supporting cast of character, some more supportive than others. The supporting players may operate on the periphery acting both independently and in concert with the main players. Supporting players may be just that – supporting as a choir or echo chamber.

Supporting Players:

Robert P Murphy is also a columnist at Townhall.com

Senior Fellow: :{Institute for Energy Researc:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{h:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:

Robert P. Murphy is an economist with IER specializing in climate change. His research focuses on the proper discount rate to be used in cost-benefit analyses and the implications of structural uncertainty for policy solutions.

Board of Scholars: :{Mackinac Center for Public Polic:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{y:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:

Per SOURCEWATCH: The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a state-level conservative policy think tank in Michigan. Founded in 1987, it is the largest state-level think tank in the nation. It was established by the state's leading conservative activists to promote free market, pro-business policies. The Center voices its policy positions though publications and has moved beyond Michigan by helping the leaders of similar conservative institutions to improve their operations in many other states and countries around the world.

The Institute for Energy Research (IER)

Per SOURCEWATCH: founded in 1989 from a predecessor non-profit organisation, advocates positions on environmental issues including deregulation of utilities, climate change denial, and claims that conventional energy sources are virtually limitless. It is a member of the Sustainable Development Network.

Robert L. Bradley Jr: Chief Executive Officer and President.

Currently a member of the International Association for Energy Economics, the American Economic Association, Southern Economic Association, and the American Historical Association. Former Director of Public Relations Policy at Enron.

Campaigns

In 2009 IER ran a campaign on "green jobs" attacking the expansion of renewables energies. IER commissioned three studies on renewable energies and green jobs in Denmark, Germany and Spain. These studies by different think tanks were than promoted by IER and other free market think tanks in the US but also used in Europe.

American Energy Alliance is a "partner" of Institute for Energy Relations and the same people work for both.

The American Energy Alliance (AEA) was founded in 2008 by Thomas Pyle, who previously lobbied on behalf of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association and Koch Industries and who previously worked for Congressman Tom Delay (R-TX), when Delay served as Whip and before Delay, as House Majority Leader, stepped down from the U.S. House of Representatives under an ethical cloud. (emphasis added

[several large flow/org charts]

duck 5 22

they did a talk in brazil?

:{https://www.fticonsulting.com:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}::{ › insights › fti-journal › clear-cut-victory-brazils-next-president-yields-uncertain-future:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}:

:{Brazil's Next President Yields Uncertain Future | FTI Consulting:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:top;display:inline-block;max-width:100%;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"):}:

Here are the main issues Bolsonaro will face following his inauguration on January 1: Economy in Turmoil Lifting Brazil out of its dire economic crisis must be one of the first issues tackled by President Bolsonaro. None of his other policy objectives can be achieved without a return to growth and lower unemployment.

:{https://www.fticonsulting.com:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}::{ › insights › articles › bolsonaros-election-resounding-victory-yields-uncertain-future-part-one:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}:

:{Bolsonaro's Election - Part One | FTI Consulting:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:top;display:inline-block;max-width:100%;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"):}:

Bolsonaro may have handedly won the run-off against his opponent, Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party (PT), but questions abound over his ability to govern and how quickly he can return Brazil to macroeconomic and political stability, if at all. We conclude that Bolsonaro's mandate is not nearly as strong as the vote totals suggest.

:{https://www.fticonsulting.com:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}::{ › insights › articles › bolsonaros-election-resounding-victory-yields-uncertain-future-part-two:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}:

:{Bolsonaros Election Part Two | FTI Consulting:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:top;display:inline-block;max-width:100%;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"):}:

O ne week ago, right-wing candidate Jair Messias Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) was declared the president-elect of Brazil, ushering in what he hopes will prove a historic shift for the role of the government in the daily lives of Brazilians: "More Brazil, Less Brasília" ("Mais Brasil, Menos Brasília").

:{https://www.fticonsulting.com:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}::{ › insights › fti-journal › 9-key-sectors-ripe-reform-new-brazil:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}:

:{Sectors Ripe for Reform in the "New" Brazil | FTI Consulting:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:top;display:inline-block;max-width:100%;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"):}:

Brazil has been spellbound by the promise of economic recovery since its new president Jair Bolsonaro was sworn into office on January 1. Bolsonaro, a member of the conservative Social Liberal Party, has promoted a market-oriented approach that focuses on reform, privatization, fiscal deficit reduction and cutting bureaucracy.

no lnx

no name

Brazil’s new president Jair Bolsonaro promised major market reforms to re-energize the world’s eighth largest economy and attract more foreign investment. As he nears the 100-day mark, here’s where the country stands.

Though Bolsonaro’s party does not control the Brazilian Congress, the president is in the honeymoon phase of his four-year mandate and still has support from the population, the market and other governors from several of Brazil’s states. Optimism is still high, and the financial markets, mainly based on local players, are already pricing in the improvements expected to be implemented by the new government. However, the majority of foreign investors remain on the sidelines waiting for concrete positive developments.

Key to Success

The main challenge to success is pushing social security reform through Congress. Currently, social security spending in Brazil amounts to about 44 percent of public spending and, when included with other federal obligations, it reaches an astronomical 92 percent. That figure constricts the possibility of reform in other areas of spending and will only become worse given Brazil’s aging population. Without reform, the social security deficit alone could reach about 11 percent of GDP by 2060.

In mid-March 2019, the new administration presented a social security reform package to Congress aimed at reducing the deficit and has been working diligently to gain approval. Passing the package is key to maintaining the momentum that the local financial markets have shown in the new government; since inauguration, the Brazilian stock market has gone through a rally, reflecting a confidence that Bolsonaro will be successful in implementing the measures needed to stabilize the economy.

Despite this optimism, however, a few recent events could distract both the executive branch and Congress in the short term:

The pension reform package includes a different proposal specifically for the armed forces. This will probably generate significant discussions in Congress.

The arrest in late March of former President Michel Temer (on corruption charges) will likely add complexity to an already tenuous relationship between Congress and the executive branch.

Polls showed that approval of the Bolsonaro government fell in March.

A trip to the United States by Bolsonaro in March to meet President Trump did little to move the needle back home. Among other topics, discussions revealed outstanding issues:

U.S. support for the admission of Brazil to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is solid but not likely to have much effect until Brazil can show that its economy is opening up to the world.

Both the United States and Brazil need to work toward stabilizing the crisis in Venezuela. Brazil must halt the influx of refugees, and it will likely continue a dovish rhetoric and approach to Venezuela.

On the positive side, the two governments discussed eliminating visa requirements for US, Canadian, Australian and Japanese nationals. That concession by Brazil will certainly help tourism in Brazil and boost the fortunes of hotels, resorts and airlines.

Potential Gains

The government’s hope is that foreign investors will climb aboard once they perceive the social security reform will be implemented and that fiscal deficit reduction will follow. It’s likely that the first sign of perceived success or failure in this regard will be reflected in the exchange rate. Failure (or a heavily diluted reform) will have a direct impact on the states and federal tax deficits.

1. Privatization

The federal, states, and municipal governments of Brazil have a direct or indirect stake in 418 companies, of which about 130 are federally owned. Many of these are targeted to be sold by the current government. Selling such assets will generate proceeds to reduce public debt, increase economic efficiency, help halt corruption by reducing political influence in companies, and increase private investments in infrastructure. The maximum cash generation from sales of public entities is expected to be BRL$420 billion (USD$108 billion). Likely problems to be encountered include a strong adverse reaction from government employees.

Construction and Real Estate

Construction: Infrastructure investments have lagged for at least two decades, creating a gap in investment opportunities estimated at BRL$2 trillion (USD$513 billion). Estimates for 2019 and 2020 include a recovery of approximately 4.5 percent per year, which is largely insufficient to close the Brazilian infrastructure gap. Real estate: Previously, construction companies were required to reimburse the client virtually all monies paid during the construction of a building in case of a contract termination. A recent law has increased real estate companies’ protection by imposing higher termination penalties to clients. Now is a good time for entry into the market as it is still cold, with historically low housing prices (when expressed in USD terms) and significant pent-up demand.

3. Oil and Gas Exploration

One of Brazil’s strongest economic assets is undergoing significant reform following numerous corruption scandals. Opportunities abound: A continuous offer of blocks and mature fields with high potential is available; the divestment plan of 2016 continues, with dozens of teasers for the transfer of rights of a set of onshore fields and shallow water fields. More transparent bidding rounds now benefit investors and operators as Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum Natural Gas and Biofuels sets schedules for a variety of productions and concessions.

4. State-Owned Banks

Bolsonaro’s new minister of the economy wants to lead Brazil towards a free market, including adjustments on the role of the country’s three federally -owned banks: Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, and BNDES. All three saw new CEOs appointed in January. Additionally, several banks owned by individual states are under consideration for sale. Overall, opportunities abound in loan portfolios (both performing and non-performing), foreclosed real estate assets, increased credit opportunities, the BNDES equity portfolio, and privatization of state-owned banks.

5. Agribusiness

This sector remains a global powerhouse. Agribusiness GDP includes all services and processes directly or indirectly related to agriculture and farming activities, amounting to a record 23.5 percent of Brazil’s GDP in 2017. Additionally, the country ranks as number 1 in the world in the production of several commodities. Standout opportunities include beef exports, which are expected to increase due to China’s demand, and soybeans, which will benefit from trade wars between China and the U.S. However, certain barriers to foreign ownership of rural properties means that investors from abroad must consider alternative routes for return, such as convertible bonds, rural partnerships, and surface rights.

Energy (Electricity)

Electricity consumption is showing signs of recovery following the economic downturn of 2014-16. Prices soared in the past five years following a combination of inflation, erroneous decisions by former President Dilma Rousseff, and greater generation by thermoelectric plants following severe droughts that negatively impacted hydro electric production. Overall, the electricity sector is highly indebted, with a portion of the operating power plants — and mainly those under construction or planned — facing financial distress and in need of capital in order to be able to face their financial obligations or Capex needs.

Education

Although public education in Brazil is guaranteed by the constitution, the country has a historical deficit that the government has been unable to solve. Private universities have very successfully implemented online platforms, which now represent 19 percent of all higher education and is growing faster than on-site education. However, with the prospect of a stronger economy, unemployment is expected to drop, which will attract students back to the private classrooms. As a whole, education is still a sector with many individual small players, offering investors opportunities of all sizes.

Pension Funds

Pensions in Brazil are concentrated in funds from state-run companies; in fact, two-thirds of the assets are in the hands of three funds. A recent investigation identified corrupt practices around four of the largest pension funds in the country. However, a new ruling in 2018 strengthened the governance requirements of the funds, emphasizing the need for robust internal controls to avoid conflicts of interest in investment operations. Other reforms are intended to cut down on potential conflicts. Some pension funds are in the process of divesting PE investments, which creates investment opportunities in several sectors.

9. Pulp, Paper and Paper Products

China will continue to buy more pulp in 2019 as its moratorium on mixed paper imports is still valid, which increases virgin pulp demand. Brazil’s pulp producers are in a good position to take advantage of this situation due to their production capacity and low cost of production. With the change of government and improved investment climate, the amount of foreign capital injected into the forest sector in 2019 will potentially be the highest in recent years.

About The Journal

The FTI Journal publication offers deep and engaging insights to contextualize the issues that matter, and explores topics that will impact the risks your business faces and its reputation

-----

:{https://www.fticonsulting.com:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}::{ › ~ › media › Files › us-files › insights › articles › bolsonaros-election-resounding-victory-yields-uncertain-future-part-two.pdf:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}:

:{:{PDF:(style="margin:-0.2em 0px 0px;padding:1px 0.35em 0px;border:0px;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:600;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:middle;border-radius:var(--default-border-radius);display:inline-block;position:relative;user-select:none;top:-1px;background-color:#d0d0d0;"):}: Part Two - Bolsonaro's election: A resounding ... - FTI Consulting:(style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:top;display:inline-block;max-width:100%;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"):}:

One week ago, right-wing candidate Jair Messias Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) was declared the president-elect of Brazil, ushering in what he hopes will prove a historic shift for the role of the government in the daily lives of Brazilians: "More Brazil, Less Brasília" ("Mais Brasil, Meno s Brasília").