Emails Reveal BP Gave $550,000 to Group Fighting Climate Lawsuits

“For decades, Big Oil has deployed an armada of phony front groups flush with dark money in order to influence the courts, public opinion, and policymakers to protect its polluting products and lock in a future dependent on fossil fuels,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, chairman of the Budget Committee, said in a statement sent to The New Republic. “BP’s covert funding of the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project,” he added, “represents an effort to interfere with cities and states seeking accountability from oil and gas companies, including BP, for the escalating costs of climate-driven disasters.”

The funding figures come from “confidential” corporate records that were gathered via subpoena by House and Senate Democrats conducting a multiyear investigation into Big Oil’s obstruction of climate action. The documents detailing MAP’s funding—including a budget document and an email from a top BP America executive describing an initiative called “Defend BP”—were released among thousands of other industry documents in April, but haven’t been reported on until now.

Neither BP America nor MAP responded to detailed questions about the contributions. Reuters reported on Monday that BP has quietly discarded its 2020 goal of cutting fossil fuel output by 40 percent by 2030 as part of a green energy transition—and is now looking to “boost its oil and gas output,” according to internal sources.