An overview of the corporate lobbying detected by InfluenceMap related to oil, fossil gas, and methane for the months of August and September 2022.
Several oil and gas companies and industry associations reacted to the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022, engaging primarily to oppose the legislation’s fossil fuel taxes while advocating for the incentives toward oil and gas production. Industry engagement included advocacy for the IRA’s measures toward new fossil fuel extraction from oil majors ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Occidental Petroleum as well as strong opposition to the Act’s methane tax by associations American Petroleum Institute (API) and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM). API and AFPM also demonstrated strong support for the federal permitting reform proposal toward expediting fossil fuel infrastructure build out, with evidence of API engaging to draft one version of the deal.
New documents attained by InfluenceMap show how BP, Shell and Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) collectively lobbied to weaken the new ‘Climate Compatibility Checkpoint’ which new oil and gas licensing rounds will have to pass through before approval. While they all appeared to support the principle of the checkpoint, they also opposed two tests which considered the scope 3 emissions associated with new UK oil and gas production or that considered the global production gap between global oil and gas production and the 1.5 degrees pathway. These tests were omitted from the final checkpoint, which was released on the 22nd September.
The European Parliament released its position on the EU Renewable Energy Directive revision in September 2022, which saw stringent criteria for renewable hydrogen production weakened following industry lobbying. The oil and gas sector, led by Hydrogen Europe, pushed for key elements of the criteria, including the additionality principle, to be weakened or removed through numerous joint letters and statements to European policymakers, with signatories including, BP, Engie, Snam, Eurogas, and the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers.