American Petroleum Institute

The American Petroleum Institute (API) describes itself as "the only national trade association that represents all aspects of America’s oil and natural gas industry".

Its services, as stated on its website, include:

• Advocacy -

We speak for the petroleum industry to the public, Congress and the Executive Branch, state governments and the media. We negotiate with regulatory agencies, represent the industry in legal proceedings, participate in coalitions and work in partnership with other associations to achieve our members’ public policy goals.

• Research and Statistics -

API conducts or sponsors research ranging from economic analyses to toxicological testing. And we collect, maintain and publish statistics and data on all aspects of U.S. industry operations... API’s Weekly Statistical Bulletin is the most recognized publication, widely reported by the media.

Watering down climate change research

In 2005, Philip Cooney, a lawyer and lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, was reported to have "edited the Bush administration's official policy papers on climate change to play down the link between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming".

Cooney has no scientific training, yet as chief of staff for the White House council on environmental quality he reportedly "watered down government scientific papers on climate change and played up uncertainties in the scientific literature". According to an article in The Guardian, Cooney "performed a similar role in his previous job for the American Petroleum Institute, a lobby group representing oil giants and focused on countering the virtual consensus among scientists that man-made emissions are rapidly heating the planet". The article quotes Kert Davies, the US research director for Greenpeace, as saying:

Cooney's still doing his old job for the American Petroleum Institute. It's the American Petroleum Institute working within the White House.

Astroturf activities in the run-up to COP15

An American Petroleum Institute memo, leaked to Greenpeace and publicised by them in August 2009, called on the CEOs of some of the world’s biggest oil companies (including ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron) to involve their employees in anti US climate action rallies masquerading as a grassroots movement of concerned “energy citizens”.

In a letter to Jack Gerard, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace, writes:

It would logically appear that the “Energy Citizen” campaign’s objective is to defeat climate change regulation. This goal runs contrary to several prominent API members’ public support for climate action, namely Shell, BP America, ConocoPhillips, General Electric and Siemens. These companies are all a part of the pro cap-and-trade U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which has publicly supported the Waxman-Markey Bill. In addition, most members of USCAP are also members of the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, named partners in your “Energy Citizen” campaign. Can you explain the contradictory objectives of supporting cap-and-trade on one hand and working to defeat it on the other? And also reveal if any API members opted out of the “Energy Citizen” effort?