The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change

by Geoff Dembicki

A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"An essential read."— The Washington Post

"Essential… This book belongs on the shelf next to Merchants of Doubt , Dark Money , and Kochland ."  —Roy Scranton, author of Learning to Die in the Anthropocene

"The petroleum industry is guilty of a Big Tobacco–style public cover-up, according to this vivid exposé." — Publishers Weekly STARRED Review

Burning fossil fuels will cause catastrophic global this is what top American oil executives were told by scientists in 1959. But they ignored that warning. Instead, they developed one of the biggest, most polluting oil sources in the world—the oil sands in Alberta, Canada. As investigative journalist Geoff Dembicki reveals in this explosive book, the decades-long conspiracy to keep the oil sands flowing into the U.S. would turn out to be one of the biggest reasons for the world’s failure to stop the climate crisis.

In The Petroleum Papers , Dembicki draws from confidential oil industry documents to uncover for the first time how companies like Exxon, Koch Industries, and Shell built a global right-wing echo chamber to protect oil sands profits—a misinformation campaign that continues to this day. He also tells the high-stakes stories of people fighting a Seattle lawyer who brought down Big Tobacco and is now going after Big Oil, a Filipina activist whose family drowned in a climate disaster, and a former Exxon engineer pushed out for asking hard questions.

With experts now warning we have less than a decade to get global emissions under control, The Petroleum Papers provides a step-by-step account of how we got to this precipice—and the politicians and companies who deserve our blame.


Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Climate Change, Environment, History, Science, Audiobook

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2022

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I didn't come into the book looking to be convinced of anything as much as to be entertained and outraged. I was mostly satisfied with the results.

There are parallels to the tobacco industry's efforts to sow doubts about the scientific evidence regarding the harmfulness of their products and Dembicki highlights the parallels throughout. It's generally effective but the tobacco industry shenanigans are better documented, more voluminous and more compelling. The only book I read on that subject was Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition and it's very powerful, if a bit repetitive.

Speaking of shenanigans you can't talk about oil and politics without mentioning those lovable scamps from Wichita, KS: Charles and David Koch. Dembicki effectively reveals their involvement in the climate denial camp to good effect but for a deeper and more explosive perspective on the Kochs and dark money funding I highly recommend Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

It's difficult to learn about the outsized political influence of unelected forces like the oil industry, its lobbyists and the groups set up not to debunk the science so much as to cast doubt. You know, the "Just asking questions" crowd. I generally recalled some of the climate denial campaigns described in the book and the uplifting commercials about energy companies investing in renewables for a cleaner future. These portions of the book were outrageous in a good way.

I was pleased to learn more about cap and trade, its effectiveness in eradicating the acid rain problem from years ago, and the dashed proposals to use the policy to fight climate change. Other items of interest were descriptions of the Keystone XL pipeline, how tar sands produce more hydrocarbons and how Canada fought so hard to maintain the viability of its oil sands reserves (even Justin Trudeau).

I'm not sure this book will convert a skeptic but it should please most others.

[Bea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of book I'd give as a present to everyone for the holidays.

[David Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covers a fair amount of previously reported information about the climate-change-denial influence complex, but adds interesting background from a Canadian perspective. Chiefly, the significance of the Alberta tar sands to the Canadian economy and the unholy alliance between oil companies, Canadian officials, and US refining interests in expanding production of the dirty and costly (to process) crude from the sands.

This is a valuable addition to the now well-documented trail of oil industry obfuscation on the dangers of climate change. However, "Merchants of Doubt" is, for my money, still the best analysis of how special interests utilize the old tobacco industry playbook to sow doubt to protect profits.

[Clementine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Greystone for sending me a copy of this one, out 9/20. A thorough presentation of incontrovertible evidence of what many of us know instinctively: that big oil has spent decades spreading misinformation about climate change to protect profits.

[ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

These darn Canadians

[Darmok · Rating 4 out of 5]

A journalist's account of decades of the oil industry's lies, lobbying, and disinformation about climate change. The world is already paying for what its greed and shortsightedness has wrought.

As someone who didn't know that much about this history—such as the fact that top oil executives knew about climate change as far back as 1959(!)—I found The Petroleum Papers an illuminating and infuriating read. Dembicki lays out the facts plainly, but with enough of a sense of narrative to keep it compelling.

That said, the book is somewhat muddled in focus. Its short sections jump from Alberta's oil sands to continent-wide disinformation campaigns to international climate catastrophes without always being super clear about why. A great book, but a bit disjointed.

[Martina Kernosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m really impressed with Author Geoff Dembecki’s ability to translate the dense legal content that is the basis for this book, into meaningful and understandable writing. For those of going through the world with a constant sense of guilt and panic over the climate crisis, more specifically our i individual roles in the climate crisis, I think reading this book will help alleviate some of these pains. This book illustrates that the fault of climate crisis is undeniably corporate entities that chose profit and greed over human and ecological life.

[Gen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was DENSE and the theatrical audiobook narrator nearly took me out of it. Very well researched, it was interesting to hear about the liberal Canadian government role in supporting Alberta oil sands/ Keystone. Hearing how insidious the climate denial/ misinformation campaign from these companies was is crazy but not particularly shocking and I guess that’s the most disappointing part. I would have liked to learn a bit more abt oil colonialism, if anyone has reccs for more books lmk!

[Cameron Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emotionally I am not okay and I cannot begin to comprehend how on earth the people in power let this happen. So blatant and obvious

[Nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I “read” this using the audiobook format. The information presented is nothing that would surprise the public. But having a compilation of evidence written in an easy to digest format confirms what the public ought to have known - is still tremendously helpful.

[Lena Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are familiar with climate change or are involved in any climate activism, this book will not be a huge shocker to you. The shock factor is the organization of all of these facts, anecdotes, and documents into one place. Yes, it's been well-known that Big Oil backs scientists who spread climate disinformation. Yes, it's been well-known that dozens of politicians are in the pockets of Big Oil. But to read (or listen) to the magnitude and length of time this has been going on is where this book really shines.

I don't think it's going to convince anyone who doesn't already believe in the manipulation tactics of Big Oil. And I don't think it has a strong call to action - just a lot of despair and blame for the current climate crisis.

Overall, it was a very interesting read that is definitely worth the time if you're interested in the topic.

Listened to the audiobook through my (former) public library's Hoopla access.

[Myles Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes me angry. The sheer magnitude of what we stand to lose because some assholes couldn't stand to see their profit margins drop makes me want to vomit with rage. I live in the community at the receiving end of the trans mountain pipeline. Currently they have started building the pipeline twin so they can transport more oil and park more oil tankers in the Burrard inlet. Great reporting! 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

[Mallory Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice overview of a pretty expansive history of deceit and profit from oil companies covering up climate change. I particularly enjoyed the equal focus on Canada (the author is Canadian) and both provincial and federal complicity in their role in the climate crisis. I think the structuring just left a little to be desired, as there were a lot of threads to follow and events not in chronological order that maybe could have benefited from additional clarity or reordering.

[Hilliard Macbeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book!
Fascinating, well-written and timely

[Siba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly well-written narrative of the oil and gas industry’s propaganda about climate change. Dembicki is able to convey a wealth of information in a captivating way. The way he writes enables you to keep track of the multitude of names of people that are involved in this giant scheme against humanity. Will be recommending this to everyone I know

[Josee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me so effing mad.

If you want to read a nonfiction horror novel with the most despicable excuses for human beings on the planet still breathing air today, this will get your blood boiling.

[Shae Eckles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for class. 4.5/5. Super insightful into the impact of big oil and their relationship with Republican lobbying etc. so so so insane

[Kaden Stilling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suuuper digestible and was a very rage inducing read. You always knew that big oil was “bad”, but this highlights WHY. You read over the quotes from their internal docs and the disgusting cover ups dating back to 1950s(!!!) yet we’re still in debate due to big oil’s obfuscation tactics. Also really interesting to learn about Canada’s oil sands, with how dirty the bitumen is and development played out was a big TIL.

[Jeff]

Started listening to audio books at gym but still haven’t figured out how to navigate the Libby app so I sort of picked this at random

[Glen Grunau · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very disturbing book to read. I could say I was shocked to read the diabolical discord between what oil companies learned decades ago from their own scientists about the critical impact of oil and gas on the climate and what they communicated to the public through a lavishly funded media campaign. But I would have to say I was more angry than surprised as I read the mounting evidence of an elaborate coverup funded by an industry captive to its greed-based denial.

This read like a novel. They author has told us a story of the corporate and political players that drove the massive growth of this industry during the course of my lifetime and the insidious coverup that made it all possible.

It also read like a history book. Politicians of all political stripes in Alberta, Canada and the US that I have known during my lifetime, including the Alberta premier turned radio preacher my dad used to listen to in his basement workroom when I was a youth, were all laid bare before me along with their contribution to the growth of the oil industry.

The parallels between the deception used in the tobacco industry to promote a product that science had proven caused cancer, and the deception that sewed doubt and confusion in the science that convincingly revealed that oil and gas emissions cause climate change, are uncanny.

Big Oil should be nervous as a very similar class action lawsuit to the one that resulted in the largest corporate damages settlement in history (you can read the gist of it in a John Grisham novel) is ramping up against Big Oil. The way I see it, this lawsuit is completely legit and I hope it succeeds. It is less about a vendetta against the oil industry and more about forcing an industry to simply pay for the billions and billions of damages they have inflicted on society and on human health that our governments refuse to make them pay that taxpayers are being forced to pay.

One could argue that the author has a bias and you might be right. But I believe it cannot be argued that this book was very well researched. The last quarter of the book is comprised of the references. This research offers a lot of evidence for a pending lawsuit, making this book a significant gift to a planet that needs to make a drastic and immediate course correction if we hope to save it from a climate and biodiversity disaster.

[Colin Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really well-written, well-researched account of what big oil companies knew, when they knew it, and the actions they took. It weaves together a big picture history of climate change denial with stories about the individual impact of climate disasters. The focus is mainly on the US and Canada, specifically the oil sands in Alberta, because that’s where the author is from. While I would’ve liked to learn more about what similar things were happening with other oil companies around the world, these were very major parts of the story of what went wrong with global action on climate change. Some of the parts that I found most interesting were the hypocrisy of Justin Trudeau and the fact that oil companies not only knew about climate change but had researched the most effective solutions and still tried to delay action. It had some hopeful elements towards the end about legal action like the lawsuits against big tobacco, but overall this was a pretty disheartening book, but still worth a read.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A direct successor to books like Dark Money and Merchants of Doubt. Dembicki specifically covers the contribution to climate change by the governments and companies operating within Canada and the United States. This book is as hard-hitting as those predecessors and a necessary read for Americans and Canadians to understand the damage their countries have done to this planet for the sake of profits.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

the sad history of big oil and big money

Loaded with documented proof that the big oil companies have known of the danger of their activities to climate change for more than 30 years. Yet they’ve done nothing to change how they operate and have, in fact, spent billions to intentionally spread misinformation. Unconscionable behavior that has killed thousands and destroyed properties and entire towns. And it continues to this day.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-documented history of the oil industry’s efforts to cover up climate change, in spite of the fact that their own scientists believed it was happening. Another example of corporate greed overriding science and destroying people’s lives - just like the tobacco industry. We will suffer the consequences of their lies for decades to come.

[Greg Pyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review was originally published on The Ink Smudge, March 1, 2023.

Journalist Geoff Dembicki's The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change follows naturally from an earlier book by historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, Merchants of Doubt, which documents a complex campaign of disinformation to discredit science on matters of political importance, such as denying the negative health effects of smoking, the ecological impact of pesticides, and human-induced climate change. Oreskes and Conway showed that these propaganda campaigns are mostly based around a strategy developed by the tobacco industry in the 1950s, usually by a relatively small number of bad actors. It involves funding scientific research that produces industry-friendly results, grooming credentialed scientists to represent industry's interests in court, and challenging mainstream science in both traditional and, more recently, social media to give the public the illusion that the science is uncertain. This is a very effective strategy with a long history of calling into doubt perfectly good science that produces results that are not favourable to industry, and delaying the implementation of any public policies that could negatively affect corporate profitability.

The Petroleum Papers looks at how major players in the Canadian oil sands of northern Alberta waged a similar disinformation campaign to protect some of the dirtiest oil in the world. Unlike traditional oil wells, where oil is pumped out of vast underground reservoirs, oil from the Canadian oil sands is mined as bitumen: a thick, solid mixture of oil and sand, which requires considerable processing to separate the oil from its sandy substrate. The more energy that's required for bitumen processing, the more carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere. Consequently, processing Alberta's bitumen contributes disproportionately to global climate change. Industry scientists knew in the 1960s that developing the Alberta oil sands would have devastating consequences on the climate, and by extension, the major ecological systems of the world. In fact, their early predictions were remarkably accurate in demonstrating how temperature increases tracked with atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Rather than making this information available to the global scientific community, they buried it and launched a coordinated, full-frontal disinformation campaign involving right-wing think tanks, foreign money, and high-level political influence, including oil-lobbyist-turned-prime-minister Stephen Harper. Once elected with a majority mandate, Harper cut regulations, purged the words "climate change" from government websites, and muzzled government scientists from speaking to the public about anything that might run counter to corporate interests.

Dembicki draws from a wide range of court documents, government sources, and internal corporate communications. His research is thorough and well documented. Although he covered Jason Kenney's cheerleading for the Alberta oil sands to wealthy American investors of the Petroleum Institute (Jason Kenney was a high-level minister under Stephen Harper's government who was later elected premier of Alberta in 2019), the book ended before Danielle Smith was appointed as Alberta's premier. By the time Smith took over the provincial top job, the basic strategy was set to transfer Alberta's wealth directly into the coffers of oil and gas companies.

Before her most recent run for public office, Smith was an oil lobbyist with the Alberta Enterprise Group. As a lobbyist, she and Alberta Energy Minister Peter Guthrie advocated for the R-Star program, which ostensibly was to incentivize oil and gas companies to clean up their abandoned wells province-wide. The incentive would be a $20 billion dollar gift from the taxpayers of Alberta, even though the gift recipients are already obliged by law—or, some might say, "incentivized"—to clean up their own mess.

The R-Star program was developed by the Sustaining Alberta's Energy Network (SAEN), an oil and gas advocacy group. As though it was made for Dembicki's book (perhaps Volume II), SAEN's founder, Kris Kinnear, was Smith's campaign manager and now holds the position of Special Projects Manager in the premier's office. All Smith needs now is to be granted a mandate by Albertans to give their treasure away to Big Oil and Gas, with an election anticipated by the end of May.

My biggest quibble with The Petroleum Papers is that it ended too soon. I don't say this in a self-immolation sense; rather, I say this because this story is still being written. Kenny gave a billion dollars away to oil and gas. Smith is preparing to give away up to $20 billion. And just last week (February 18, 2023), Christine Anderson, a member of Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)—a neo-Nazi party—was gifted a white cowboy hat, typically reserved for dignitaries, after her invited talk at the Petroleum Club in Calgary.

You just can't make this stuff up. Thank goodness for Geoff Dembicki and his ilk for recording it all. I can feel the "I told you so's" from here.

[Sheeba Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Déjà vu! This is exactly what happened when the tobacco industry tried to foist the blame on other reasons for the rise in cases of lung cancer; they obfuscated the science. The Petroleum Papers is a seminal book that makes you understand how, why, and when the oil & gas industry tried and became successful at climate change denial. It is about the tapping the oil from the oil sands in the region of Alberta in Canada. I was appalled to read that the oil industry was once considering an underground nuclear detonation in order to tap the oil reserves. The industry through its internal research knew about the repercussions- global warming- of increased drilling and production of fossil fuels, but the greed for the profits made them not to act what the science demanded. In fact, they had a solution to the problem as well by introducing carbon tax, which could have stabilized the CO2 emissions of Canada. The industry instead went into the campaign of making climate science uncertain and blaming the rise in temperatures on the cyclical variations in solar activity and volcanic activity. Had the oil industry acted what science demanded, which they had known since 1979 perhaps, the world would have been a better place to live in.

The book throws light on why governments failed to act successfully on the issues of global warming and how everything ranging from economy, to grants in the climate studies are intertwined. I do believe that a sustainable development with the right energy mix that includes the use of fossil fuels is achievable. The only thing that industry and the political leadership has to realize is that the greed for profits must not impact the livability on the planet.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dembicki effectively spotlights the influence peddling that the oil industry engaged in to prop up company profit and fend off regulations, with a focus on the excavation of Canadian oil sands. The Petroleum Papers were effective in drawing the parallel with the tobacco industry's similar efforts which are by now well known.
On that theme, some encouragement is given for the prospect of similar legal challenges. On page 221 he lays out the argument:
1) oil companies knew they were contributing to effects that would damage the planet's livability; noting a 1977 internal company scientist presentation to Exxon of the dangers of fossil fuel burning,
2) companies profited from excavation and sale of climate-warming fuels anyway; namely, oil sands producers, like Imperial, whose activities threatened the drinking water of local communities, aside from their larger global impacts,
3) they funded public climate disinformation campaigns; namely the notorious work of Patrick J. Michaels of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, which stymied legislative action, and
4) they passed the costs of resulting climate disasters/weather extremes onto cities; Oakland, Denver, and elsewhere.

Around the time of publication, there was actually a positive note, which unfortunately didn't make it into the book. Biden's Inflation Reduction Act - devoting $370 billion for clean energy and climate (although not as mush as pushed for earlier) - being the largest U.S. climate investment in history. Yet the book documents well the unfortunate parts of the world's dithering response to the climate emergency.

[Charles Inglin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who's been paying attention knows or at least suspects that the fossil fuel industry has been waging a disinformation campaign for years to discredit warnings of potentially catastrophic climate change. As early as the 1950's nuclear physicist Edward Teller, the father of the H-bomb, warned of the potential climate problems from burning fossil fuels to a meeting of oil executives. The oil companies, using their strong technical departments, studied the problem but used the information to craft programs to undercut legitimate research. The author, a Canadian, puts a particular slant to his excellent account, the role of Canada and the Alberta oil sands in the problem. Processing the oil sands releases immense amounts of CO2, in addition to the CO2 release by burning the end product, the but profits to gained were also immense and oil executives and politicians alike worked to prevent any progress towards cutting back. He names names, like the Koch brothers, owners of the largest refinery in the upper midwest that depended on the oil sands, and Primer Minister Justin Trudeau who gave lip service to fighting climate change while working behind the scenes to undercut his own proposals. This is a book that will make your blood boil.

[Jessica Wadleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Petroleum Papers by Geoff Dembicki. After finishing the terrific Fire Weather by John Vaillant, a moment-to-moment account of a tremendous wildfire in Canada’s petroleum saturated boreal soils, I wanted to learn more about the history of the Canadian tar sands operations. The Petroleum Papers examines the development of this carbon-intensive fuel source and the collusion, denial, disinformation, hypocrisy, and intentional obfuscation that has exacerbated the climate crisis. Dembicki’s account of the industry is damningly methodical as it pulls back the curtains, compellingly presenting the picture of a fossil fuel industry that knowingly mislead the public on the dangers of climate change and their role in exacerbating that crisis. The Petroleum Papers’ most frustrating and convincing point is how unnecessary the last thirty years of climate debate have been and how much easier the crisis would be to manage if one of the largest industries on the planet had opted not to deceive the public but lead us into a new energy future. This is kind of a hate read, in the best possible way: you’ll be so angry you’ll have to read the next page. Recommended.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't the final or best book that will be written on the topic, but it is very good. I think one from a conservative angry about bring manipulated by oil corporations will eventually be the best book on the topic.

Oil companies were very early aware of climate change and the impact their particular industry has on climate change. Like, decades before the idea moved into public consciousness.

The author does a good job of keeping focused on the lies and manipulation of the public. He humanized the issue with a running story about a family destroyed by a tsunami in the Philippines that was made worse due to climate change. He focuses on the Canadian Tar Sands and the Koch Brothers as being central to the problem and the lies.

If you are right of center and have climate change doubts, it is because a handful of people spent millions of dollars over the course of decades to make you and people like you, think thst way. They lied and manipulated us. It should make you angry. And we need to do something positive with that anger.