Fact-checking the American Petroleum Institute's New Ads Selling Natural Gas as a Climate Solution

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In 1998, the U.S.’s largest oil and gas industry lobbying group, theย American Petroleum Institute (API), was involved with a communications plan whoseย goal was promoting โ€œuncertainties in climate scienceโ€ among the American public. Over 20 years later, their communications plan looks a little different but still needsย fact-checking.ย 

In September, API began running TV, billboard, and social media ads promoting natural gas as a climate solution. โ€œThanks to natural gas, the U.S. is leading the way in reducing emissions,โ€ the ads claim,ย and โ€œleading the world in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.โ€ But is all of that true?

In fact, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions actuallyย rose 3.4 percent in 2018. While API appears to be specifically referring toย emissions from power generationย โ€”ย attributing those savings to the switch from coal power to natural gas โ€” even the powerย sector saw emissions rise 1.9 percent lastย year.


From an American Petroleum Instituteย advertisement.ย 

It’s true that U.S. CO2 emissions are down from the peak of 2005, which was a period of booming economic growth, but it was followed by a majorย recessionย just a couple years later. It’s also true thatย replacing coal with natural gas for electricity has contributed in part to that reduction, but so hasย the rise of solar and wind power and batteryย storage.

However, emissions from transportation โ€” the direct result of burning oil produced by the petroleum industry โ€” also increased in 2018.ย With the Trump administration aimingย to weaken fuel efficiency standards, that rise in transportation emissions is likely toย continue.

While the oil and gas industry โ€” or as API‘s new ads call it, โ€œthe natural gas and oil industryโ€ โ€” is touting natural gas as a way to decreaseย emissions,ย the U.S. Energy Information Administration predictsย that natural gas will have the greatest increase in carbon dioxide emissions growth of any fuel source through 2050. That would make the U.S. a world leader in increasingย CO2 emissions from naturalย gas.


A reference case scenario in the 2019 Annual Energy Outlook forecasts considerableย growth in carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S., and globally, from natural gas. Credit: U.S. Energy Informationย Administration

About Thatย Methaneโ€ฆ

All of this so far is only focused on carbon dioxide emissions, but when discussing emissions and natural gas, you can’t leave out methane, a potent but short-lived greenhouse gas that is the primary constituent of natural gas. (Methane is alsoย emitted byย other sources, such as wetlands, landfills, andย livestock.)

In one of the new API ads, viewers are presented with the claim that the largest producing oil and gas regions have seen a โ€œ60 percent reduction in emissions,โ€ a point prominentlyย flashed across theย screen.


From an American Petroleum Institute advertisement.

At first glance, that seems likeย a great accomplishment, but a close listenย to the video’s narrator (and a close reading of the API website) reveals the industry hasย reduced emission rates, not overall emissions, by 60 percent in the most productive oil and gas fields. That means greenhouse gas emissions are not increasing in these regions as fast as they once were, but that doesn’t mean they are goingย down.

However, methane emissions, both in the U.S. and globally, have surged in the past decade, and a 2019 Cornell University studyย points to fracked shale oil and gas production as a major culprit. Considering how much more powerful methane is at warming the climate compared to CO2 in the short term, these claims by API are misleading atย best.

The Trump administration has proposed rolling back a regulationย addressing methane leaks from oil and gas production, a move broadly opposed by large oil and gas companies like Exxon and BP butย welcomed by API and the smaller firms it alsoย represents.

Erik Milito, a vice president at API, voiced his support for replacing the methane rule with a looser one,ย telling the New York Times, โ€œWe think itโ€™s a smarter way of targeting methaneย emissions.โ€

Meanwhile, global methane emissions continue toย rise.

Flaring andย Venting

As DeSmog has reported, the flaring and venting, or burning and direct release,ย of natural gas as part of the U.S. fracking industry is largely unregulated. These common oil and gas field activitiesย are contributingย to increasing carbon dioxide and methane emissions in states like North Dakota and Texas.ย 

In Texas, the industry, while drillingย for oil,ย is flaring enough natural gas to power the entire state, but because the gas is just being burned out in the oil fields,ย it’s not actually poweringย anything.

โ€œItโ€™s a black eye for the Permian basin,โ€ Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield said at an energy conference at Columbia Universityย this spring. โ€œThe state, the pipeline companies, and the producers โ€” we all need to come together to figure out a way to stop theย flaring.โ€

One way to stop flaring would be federal or state rules banning or limiting the practice, coupled with strong oversight from regulators. But in industry-friendlyย states like Texas and North Dakota, regulators have failed to enforce any real restrictions on flaring, and soย the problem continues to grow.

The fracking industry has been losing money for more than a decade, which means shale oilย firms are eager to keep costs low in an already expensive business.ย Flaring and venting natural gas, which is in oversupply and fetching low prices,ย saves these firms money when the alternative is building pricey pipelines and processing plants to otherwise deal with it. Ethan H. Bellamy,ย senior research analyst at Baird Equity Research,ย summed up the situation: โ€œThe business and regulatory question is what to waste, money orย molecules?โ€

As always, the question comes back to profits. And the industry’s answer to that question isย to โ€œwasteโ€ molecules of natural gas by flaring or venting because this practice allows fracking firms to lose less money than they otherwise would, while still paying executive salaries andย bonuses.

Even theย International Energy Agency (IEA)ย realizes thisย problem withย naturalย gas.ย 

IEA executive director Fatih Birolย recentlyย told CNBC, โ€œWhen you look at the future, the Achilles heel of the gas industry is the methaneย emissions.โ€

Despiteย the American Petroleum Institute’s new advertising claims, shifting power sources to natural gas won’t stave off the climateย crisis.

But as viewers of API‘sย new ad, โ€œTogether, We’re On It,โ€ will note, the industry is starting to acknowledge public unrest over these issues. Framing it as โ€œthe energy debate,โ€ the ad shows a young man sitting in a diner,ย watchingย a videoย of protesters on his laptop as a similar protest โ€” perhaps theย hoards of climate strikers who were slated to take theย streets in Septemberย โ€” marches by, reflected in theย window.

Meanwhile, a sympathetic female narrator attempts to soothe this unrest, saying, โ€œThe energy debate, the pundits, the chatter, it’s constant. It can feel overwhelming,โ€ before pivoting to a talking point aboutย โ€œthe millions of problem solvers working in naturalย gas.โ€

Is the Gas Boom Alreadyย Over?

The oil and gas industry has been shifting its PR narrative in recent years, with some like API tryingย to convince the world that natural gas is a climate solution, as companiesย moveย to lock in future demand by rapidly buildingย new gas pipelines, power plants, and otherย infrastructure.

That’s despite reports like those from the nonpartisan but pro-clean energy nonprofit the Rocky Mountain Institute, which recently forecast that up to 90 percent of natural gas power plants (and many pipelines) may be more expensive to run than renewables by 2035. Reports like these show natural gas isย a bad investment for both economics andย a livableย climate.

Along those lines, a recent headline from oil and energy news site Oilprice.com should concern natural gas investors, asking,ย โ€œIs The U.S. Gas Boom Alreadyย Over?โ€

The U.S. natural gas industry, whose growth largely has been driven by advances in fracking and drilling technology,ย has been plagued by losses, and investors are apparently getting tired of loaning money to companiesย that make itย disappear.

It isnโ€™t hard to understand why API is now marketing natural gas using language about emissions reductions and energy demand. Risingย pressure is coming from a public concerned about the climate crisis andย fromย the increasingly cost-competitive renewables and storageย industry.

An excellent example of this economic pressureย came earlier this month. A northwestย power company owned by billionaire Warren Buffetโ€™s investment firm Berkshire Hathaway โ€” which has no problem investing heavily in oil and gasย โ€” recently announced plans to shut down most of its coal plants serving Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, and Utah, and replaceย them with renewables and battery storageย by 2038.ย That’s despite the abundance of very cheap natural gas in the U.S.

API knows the industry is feeling the heat, and it looks to be employing the same misinformation playbookย that it used to sow doubt about the well-supported science of climate change and the resulting action the scienceย demands.

Main image: From the American Petroleum Institute’s new ad โ€œWe’re On It.โ€ Credit: API

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Justin Mikulka is a research fellow at New Consensus. Prior to joining New Consensus in October 2021, Justin reported for DeSmog, where he began in 2014. Justin has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University.

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