EU Defends Hiring Trump-Linked Oil Trade Group

DCI Groupโ€™s 2024 clients include the American Petroleum Institute, which has a history of undermining the scientific consensus on climate change.
Adam Barnett - new white crop
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, December 2024. Credit: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The European Union has backed its decision to hire a Republican-linked PR firm with a string of fossil fuel clients.

Washington-based consultancy DCI Group was employed by the EUโ€™s delegation to the U.S. days before President Donald Trumpโ€™s election on November 5, with a brief to advise on โ€œcommunications and public engagement strategy [with] an emphasis on promoting EU trade and investment in the United Statesโ€.ย 

The appointment was revealed last week by Politico, as EU member states reacted to Trumpโ€™s threats to impose sweeping tariffs around the U.S. market.

DeSmog has since found that the consultancy has represented Americaโ€™s largest oil and gas trade body, which has a history of casting doubt on established climate science.

Alongside fossil fuel giants Shell and ExxonMobil, DCI Groupโ€™s 2024 clients include the American Petroleum Institute (API), the main trade association and lobby group for U.S. oil interests which once outlined its goal to promote โ€œuncertaintiesโ€ about climate change and make it a โ€œnon-issueโ€.

The EU has defended its work with the consultancy, while appearing to downplay its significance. In an emailed statement to DeSmog on Thursday, the delegation revealed that it had signed โ€œa very low value contractโ€ of $15,000 (ยฃ12,000) with DCI Group for a four month period.

โ€œThe European Union delegationโ€™s decision to work with a consulting firm is aimed at fostering dialogue on key issues, including trade,โ€ the EU spokesperson said. 

โ€œIt is standard practice for diplomatic missions to reach out to diverse political groups, ensuring that all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, can have a better understanding of EU policies.โ€

The EU delegation did not respond to DeSmogโ€™s questions about whether DCIโ€™s fossil fuel and mining clients could represent a conflict with the EUโ€™s endangered climate and nature targets.

The DCI Group has boasted about its new client on its website, claiming that the EU โ€œpulled the ace out of its sleeve in the trade war with the United Statesโ€ by hiring โ€œformer close associates of Donald Trumpโ€.

Pascoe Sabido, a campaigner at non-profit Corporate Europe Observatory, said DCIโ€™s client list could demonstrate a โ€œglaringโ€ conflict of interest.

โ€œThe European Commission should not be hiring lobby firms that have represented big polluters,โ€ he told DeSmog.

โ€œIt shows just how normalised the fossil fuel industry and their enablers have become in Brussels. Who else is the firm representing, and is it using its contract with the Commission to help its other clients?โ€

DCI Group has also been named in an ongoing U.S. justice department investigation into the alleged hacking of climate activists who had filed lawsuits against ExxonMobil for misleading the public over fossil fuelsโ€™ impact on climate change. Both DCI Group and ExxonMobil have previously denied involvement in the hacking.

DCI and the American Petroleum Institute did not respond to DeSmogโ€™s requests for comment. 

American Petroleum Institute

The EUโ€™s deployment of DCI comes amid an anti-green backlash fuelled by a global rise in populist right-wing parties.

Since his election on January 20, President Donald Trump has vowed to increase fossil fuel extraction, remove mention of climate change from government websites, and ban offshore wind. In the EU, a raft of ambitious policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions are at risk following a rightward shift in last yearโ€™s European elections.

DeSmog has previously reported how Trumpโ€™s Republican party enjoys a close relationship with the American Petroleum Institute, and has received significant funding from oil and gas companies. 

In 2020 the group reportedly received $10 million from Shell alone. The API spent $6,250,000 on lobbying in 2024, according to the Open Secrets database. 

Last month the API welcomed Donald Trumpโ€™s executive orders to โ€œunleash American energyโ€, including new domestic oil drilling in Alaska, lifting the pause on LNG exports, and โ€œroll[ing] back heavy handed vehicle mandatesโ€. 

A 20 January API press release said: โ€œThis is a new day for American energy, and we applaud President Trump for moving swiftly to chart a new path where U.S. oil and natural gas are embraced, not restricted.โ€

In 2018, the API launched a project โ€œto convince Hispanic and black communities to support the Trump administrationโ€™s proposed expansion of offshore drillingโ€. 

The group has a long record of opposing climate action and working to discredit climate science. In 1998 an API โ€œcommunications planโ€, obtained by The New York Times and Greenpeace in 2007, said the groupโ€™s aim was to promote โ€œuncertaintyโ€ about climate change and embed that into โ€œconventional wisdomโ€.

It added: โ€œUnless โ€˜climate changeโ€™ becomes a non-issue, meaning that the Kyoto proposal is defeated and there are no further initiatives to thwart the threat of climate change, there may be no moment when we can declare victory for our efforts.โ€

In 2003, API partly funded a paper co-authored by Willie Soon, a Malaysian astrophysicist, claiming the climate has not changed in 2,000 years. Soon, who has received funding from fossil fuel interests, has also claimed that climate change is caused by solar activity. 

DCI also worked for Citizensโ€™ Alliance for Responsible Energy (CARE). The pro-fossil fuel lobby group has praised oil, gas and coal power, and claimed in 2015: โ€œScientists cannot even agree whether there IS a global warming trend at this time, much less agree to its cause.โ€

Climate scientists at the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have stressed that โ€œit is a statement of fact, we cannot be any more certain; it is unequivocal and indisputable that humans are warming the planetโ€. 2024 was the hottest year on record, with the Paris Agreement to limit catastrophic temperature rises โ€œin grave dangerโ€, according to experts at the World Health Organization.

Adam Barnett - new white crop
Adam Barnett is DeSmog's UK News Reporter. He is a former Staff Writer at Left Foot Forward and BBC Local Democracy Reporter.

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