As oil and gas majors increasingly tout their green credentials, climate change activists who say such claims are misleading are pursuing a new avenue to hold companies to account.
While several US states and cities have filed lawsuits against fossil fuel firms over “greenwashing” in the past few years, three environmental groups took a different tack in March when they launched a landmark complaint against Chevron Corp.
Rather than going through the courts, the green groups — Global Witness, Greenpeace and Earthworks — filed a false advertising complaint against Chevron with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which enforces rules against deceptive ads.
Photo: Reuters
The three organizations are hopeful that their complaint to the national agency under US President Joe Biden’s administration will gain more traction than a lawsuit filed in a federal or state court, and lay down a marker for further action against “greenwashing.”
“We would hope that a successful case against Chevron would set a precedent that would discourage other companies ... from engaging in these kinds of greenwashing tactics,” Zorka Milin, a senior legal adviser at Global Witness, said in a telephone interview.
The FTC can send warnings or seek civil or financial penalties if it finds that firms have broken advertising laws that prohibit unfair or deceptive ads. The agency has said warnings are often enough to bring offending companies in line.
The environmental groups said in the complaint that despite Chevron’s ads touting its investment in renewable energy, the company spent just 0.2 percent of its annual capital expenditure budget — about US$26 million a year — on lower-carbon energy sources.
In a statement, Chevron called the complaint “frivolous” and said it was investing US$3 billion from this year to 2028 “to advance the energy transition.”
The American Petroleum Institute (API), a leading trade group, rejected the notion that green ad campaigns by oil and gas companies were misleading, and said the industry was striving to balance new climate realities with the needs of customers.
“The record of the past two decades demonstrates that the industry has achieved its goal of providing affordable, reliable American energy to US consumers while substantially reducing emissions and our environmental footprint,” said Paul Afonso, senior vice president and chief legal officer for the API.
Public scrutiny of oil company ads over their claims to curb emissions and transition to cleaner energy is growing, and legal challenges against such advertising are entering new territory in the US in the wake of similar action overseas.
Last year, Italy’s competition authority fined energy giant Eni SpA 5 million euros (US$6 million) for ads claiming that its diesel was “green” and helped the environment.
Moreover, Britain’s advertising watchdog upheld a complaint in 2019 against an ad by Norwegian energy giant Equinor ASA that suggested gas was a “low carbon” energy source.
Global Witness said its complaint against Chevron was the first to petition the FTC to use its “Green Guides” against an oil company.
The commission’s updated 2012 guidelines aim to prevent businesses from making false environmental claims.
The FTC can take months, or years, to rule on such cases. The agency confirmed it had received the groups’ complaint, but declined to comment on whether or not it was pursuing a case.
However, Milin said she was encouraged by the appointment last week of Lina Khan as the new FTC chair.
Democrats now have a 3-2 majority on the commission, with Biden signaling he wants to use all levers of the government to spur swift action on climate change.
Various US states and cities — including New York City and the District of Columbia — have in the past few years sued oil companies over “greenwashing,” and activists say such litigation is likely to become more frequent and fruitful in the future.
Yet such lawsuits might ultimately be hamstrung by the US Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority, thus highlighting the importance of new avenues such as the complaint against Chevron filed with the FTC, environmental law expert Karen Sokol said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS