The strategy of wealthy corporations seeking to influence public policy follows a “political cookbook” first devised in the 1960s.  At that time, the tobacco industry hatched a plan to attack government regulation after the US Surgeon General’s report on the health hazards of smoking.

The plan was complex and comprehensive, but it included a few key strategies: undermine the science with funded “experts” willing to advance Big Tobacco’s perspectives; fund “front groups” of aligned businesses and associations that lacked the moral backbone to reject its donations; and shower elected officials with campaign contributions and other gifts in order to buy political fealty.  These strategies, coupled with well-funded public disinformation campaigns to sow doubt, bamboozled the public and for decades blocked the enactment of meaningful public health protections. 

As a result, millions experienced needless diseases and early deaths– a plague upon America and the world.

But public health advocates uncovered the deceptions and tactics of the tobacco lobby and reversed the debate.  For the past twenty years, tobacco use has shrunk, the industry has paid hundreds of billions of dollars in public health damages, and its political influence has waned.

During this time, the oil industry was taking notes.  After its own scientists reported that the burning of oil, coal, and gas would heat up the planet and could lead to catastrophic consequences for all humanity, the industry sprang into action.  It closed its scientific research and began its own disinformation campaign of attacking independent science, funding front groups, and investing in political mouthpieces of all kinds.

Their campaign has worked – and continues to work throughout much of America.  Yet, in New York, the public interest pushed back and stopped the effort to allow industrial scale extraction of gas through “fracking” and pushed forward meaningful environmental measures to shift the state away from the reliance on fossil fuels for its power.

Despite the positive work done to combat tobacco addiction and to move toward reliance on non-fossil-fuel power, both the tobacco and fossil fuel industries have recently advanced new disinformation campaigns in New York. 

The most widely-reported is the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to roll back the state’s efforts to reduce its reliance on oil and gas for power.  As reported in the New York Times, last year the gas industry spent nearly a million dollars to block the state’s efforts to require that new buildings rely on electricity for power and heat, not fossil fuels.  This year’s version focuses on the ludicrous campaign to scare New Yorkers into thinking that the government is looking to take away gas stoves.  The industry is spending big on a public relations campaign, and presumably showering money on allied groups and elected officials.

This time, the tobacco industry is following the oil and gas lobby.

Industry groups, bolstered by the big bucks of the tobacco lobby, are lining up in opposition to Governor Hochul’s proposed ban on flavored tobacco products, as well as her proposed $1-a-pack hike in cigarette taxes.

Why is the governor proposing a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco?  Currently, flavored cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes (“vapes”) are banned for sale in New York.  In 2009, the Congress banned the sale of flavored cigarettes – except menthol flavors.  In New York, the state bans the sale of all flavors in vapes.

The reason for the current restriction is pretty obvious – flavored cigarettes and vapes are designed to make it easier for kids to suck in the harsh emissions from these products.  The sweeter the taste, the easier it is to get hooked.

Governor Hochul’s plan plugs the remaining gaps – other flavored tobacco products, such as that found in cigars, cigarillos, and chew, as well as a ban on menthol flavoring.

The industry is fighting back hard, arguing that forbidding flavors impacts adults’ “choice.”  But it is obvious to anyone who has watched the industry, and their front groups, that they know they need flavorings to entice and keep new generations of hooked tobacco users to replace those who quit, get sick, or die.  Otherwise, their industry will itself die.

Thus, the tobacco industry has organized a new disinformation campaign to undermine the science.  It’s enlisting its usual allies – those who sell these deadly products – as well as adding hired public relations firms to push their deadly opposition.

New Yorkers have seen their poisonous playbooks before, but it’s been a while since the tobacco lobby got involved in a high-visibility effort.

Don’t be fooled.  Both Big Oil and Big Tobacco are using their bags of money and tricks to once again block needed public health and environmental protections.  This time, the governor and state lawmakers should blow away the smokescreens and put the public interest first.  These fights are likely to play out in the budget, so we’ll know soon enough whether lawmakers have the spine to stand up to these powerful special interests and their disinformation campaigns.

The year-end profits for the West’s biggest privately held oil companies were released last week and the results were staggering: a record $200 plus billion.  And when you add the companies controlled by governments – Aramco for example – the industry is getting richer on a scale never seen before.

Exxon Mobil made $56 billion in profit last year, its largest annual haul ever.  Chevron earned $36 billion, also a company record.  Shell, Europe’s biggest energy company, doubled its profits in 2022 to almost $40 billion — the highest in its 115-year history.

In fact, of the top seven western, publicly-traded, not-government-run oil companies, every one with the exception of Marathon Petroleum more than doubled their earnings.  And Marathon’s still rose by 67%.  All told, the companies pulled in $228 billion last year, tens of billions of which they used to enrich their stockholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks. 

For example, Chevron announced a $75 billion buyback program.  Exxon announced its own $50 billion repurchase plan in December.  The record profits and share repurchases paid out to investors in 2022 by the western majors have provoked outrage.  Most notably, last week President Biden commented in his State of the Union address that those actions “in the midst of a global energy crisis” were “outrageous.”  He proposed quadrupling the federal tax on corporate stock buybacks.

The comments of the United Nations Secretary-General were even more pointed: 

“It is immoral for oil and gas companies to be making record profits from the current energy crisis on the backs of the poorest, at a massive cost to the climate.  This grotesque greed is punishing the poorest and most vulnerable people while destroying our only home.”

Those record profits are largely driven by the economic recovery following the COVID pandemic-related recession and the war in Ukraine.  After years of pressuring Big Oil to curb production, political leaders from London to Berlin to Washington changed tack last year as prices surged, calling on companies to boost output or help them procure replacements for boycotted Russian fossil fuels following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

As a result, Big Oil is raking it in.

Instead of allowing the companies to enrich their shareholders and fatten their bottom lines, why not divert some of those earnings to offset societal costs resulting from climate change related storms and rising sea levels?

New Yorkers will have to pay tens of billions of dollars to address the climate crisis.  A 2022 federal report found New York State experienced 51 billion-dollar disaster events due to the climate crisis from 2000 to 2021 – costing the state between $50 to $100 billion, and up to $20 billion in 2021 alone.  And more intense storms and rising sea levels pose threats to the state’s coast lines along the Great Lakes, the Hudson River and, of course, the Atlantic Ocean.  Protecting those shores will be extremely expensive.  For example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that it will cost $52 billion to protect New York Harbor alone.

Let’s not forget that the crisis we are now in is the result of the oil industry’s efforts.  The industry knew for decades that the burning of fossil fuels will lead to the planet heating up.  Instead of taking responsibility for their business practices, they engaged in a campaign of aggressive climate denial.  Decades of opposition to environmental protection legislation and international treaties has resulted in a climate crisis that only dramatic action can help to mitigate.

They are now making money hand over fist.  And they believe they will continue to do so for years to come.  Chevron chief Mike Wirth recently stated that “The reality is, [fossil fuel] is what runs the world today.  It’s going to run the world tomorrow and five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now.”

Why not shift some of those profits to offset the financial, health, and environmental burdens we will all face as a result of climate change – changes that could have been avoided if not for the oil companies’ propaganda?

Legislation introduced in New York and under consideration in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Vermont would divert some of those profits – today and for years to come – to cover climate change induced costs.  The New York bill requires companies most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to pay a total of $75 billion over 25 years for the environmental damage they have done.  The funds would allow New Yorkers to invest in massive infrastructure improvements, upgrade stormwater drainage and sewage treatment systems, prepare the power grid for severe weather, create systems to protect people from extreme heat, and respond to environmental and public health threats.  

As Governor Hochul and state lawmakers work to hammer out a final budget agreement, they should protect New York taxpayers from the significant and growing costs of climate change.  They should claw back some of the oil industry’s staggering profits to cover the costs of global warming.  Make the climate polluters pay.

The big Albany news last week was the unveiling of Governor Hochul’s 2023-2024 Executive Budget proposal. Hammering out a final budget is rarely easy, but the prospects for the governor’s plans are boosted by the state’s $8.7 budget surplus.

That surplus is the result of higher-than-expected tax revenues and monies that have flowed from the federal government.  The governor also laid the groundwork for tougher days ahead, proposing that half of this year’s surplus be added to the state’s reserve funds to boost that total to more than $20 billion.

The governor’s plan anticipates a possible recession (mild) that would cut into future state revenues, with her office projecting budget gaps of about $22 billion over three years.

The proposed $227 billion proposal covers a lot of ground, calling for more money for existing programs, as well as offering new policy initiatives.  The governor wants record increases in education and Medicaid spending.  She also would set aside more than $1 billion to help New York City pay some costs of providing social services to new asylum seekers. Her budget offered details about her plan to build 800,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade. 

When it came to climate change, her budget paralleled the plan offered late last year by the state’s Climate Action Council.  The Council was created under state law to develop a plan for the state to meet its science-based greenhouse gas emission goals. 

Hochul is calling for a $5.5 billion investment to promote energy affordability, reduce emissions, and invest in clean air and water.  Her plan includes a “cap-and-invest” program that would establish a tightening cap on greenhouse gas emissions and invest the proceeds from polluter fees, with a focus on helping disadvantaged communities.  The “cap-and-invest” plan is modeled on the state’s current cap-and-trade program, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cooperative effort among eight eastern states that caps and reduces carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.  The governor’s plan would extend that concept to large-scale greenhouse gas emitters and distributors of heating and transportation fuels, requiring they purchase pollution allowances for their activities.  Proceeds will support investments in climate mitigation, energy efficiency, clean transportation, and other projects, in addition to funding an annual Climate Action Rebate that will be distributed to all New Yorkers to help mitigate any potential consumer costs associated with the program.

Additionally, the governor’s budget proposes that all new building construction rely on non-fossil fuels for power.  Her plan is to require by 2025 that there be no on-site fossil fuel combustion for smaller buildings, and by 2028 for larger buildings.  In addition, the plan would bar the sale of fossil fuel heating equipment by 2030 for smaller buildings and by 2035 for larger buildings and related fossil fuel systems for all buildings.  In a surprise addition, the governor proposed legislation to allow the New York Power Authority to build renewable energy projects.

The governor’s new construction plan lags behind a law already in place in New York City – the skyscraper capital of the nation.  Why the governor delayed the implementation of the ban on gas and oil being used to power new buildings is unknown – a head scratcher given that new construction is considered the “low-hanging fruit” of moving off fossil fuels.

One of the biggest problems facing the state is the eroding finances of the downstate mass transit system, run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).  The federal government has provided $15 billion in aid to help the MTA recover from financial losses during the pandemic. Due to slower than anticipated gains in ridership, the MTA will spend that money fast.  With projected budget deficits of $600 million in 2023 and $1.2 billion in both 2024 and 2025, the state must provide additional funding so that the MTA can serve New Yorkers and help New York City fully bounce back.  

If approved, the governor’s plan would stop the MTA’s financial hemorrhaging, but not right the ship.  The ongoing financial problems will continue to fester and the threats of rising sea levels and more fierce storms will add to that price tag.  More will need to be done.

The governor advanced a plan that is likely to draw significant opposition.  The governor’s budget, while keeping the statewide cap of 460 charter schools in place, proposes to eliminate regional caps and make 85 more slots available for new charter schools anywhere in the state.  In addition to proposing an expansion of charter schools, the governor also advanced new public safety measures, which are also likely to generate legislative opposition.

The governor also embraced her predecessor’s plan to hike public college tuition, another initiative that will generate opposition.  It was the former governor’s higher education budgets that contributed to the growing financial problems within the State University and City University systems.  Governor Hochul also failed to propose any new help to independent colleges, which are also in bad financial shape.

In the area of health care, the governor proposed an increase in cigarette taxes and a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products – to track the current prohibitions on flavored cigarettes and vapes.  Already the tobacco lobby and their front groups are mounting fierce opposition to these measures.  The governor’s plan falls short – she does not use the additional proceeds to fund the state’s anti-smoking efforts or boost efforts to curb the sale of illegal tobacco products.  That failure plays right into the hands of the tobacco lobby and their allies. 

More will be learned as the governor’s plans get legislative scrutiny, starting this week.  Under New York’s Constitution, the governor wins a lot more than she loses in Albany’s budget fights.  Too often, Albany forgets whose money it is they’re fighting over.  In order for the governor and state lawmakers to get it right, we have to stay engaged.  Stay tuned.

The United Nations stated that the world must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030 or civilization will be devastated. 2030 is only 7 years away.  The UN declaration is in line with New York’s goals and thus the state’s climate goals set the floor – not the ceiling – for action.   Missing those goals ignores climate science and puts New York on a trajectory that could lead to unnecessary deaths, human suffering, and staggering costs from flooding, storms, and heatwaves.

New York law requires that the state meet the goals set by the world’s experts.  The blueprint to meet these goals was laid out in last month’s Climate Action Council report. 

It’s not surprising that the report is now targeted by the fossil fuel industry and its allies – who have so far blocked meaningful climate action.  For decades, the oil industry knew of the dangers of burning fossil fuels – oil, coal, and gas – yet deliberately lied to the public.  They were so successful that now the world is facing an existential threat.

New York’s plan is now under attack by the same industry.  Their most recent effort to undermine the state’s climate plan is to divert our attention to the bogus charge that the government is going to take away gas stoves! 

Of course, no one will lose their gas stoves.  The state’s climate plan says that new buildings constructed later this decade will have to be powered by electricity, not fossil fuels, including gas.  It also states that New York will prohibit the sale of new, gas-powered appliances during the next decade, like it will do for the sale of new cars.  All of this makes sense, since New York, the nation, and the world, must kick our fossil fuel energy addiction.  And it makes sense since the top two sources of greenhouse gas emissions are buildings and transportation.

The plan also covers not-so-obvious issues, like the way the state should handle solid wastes – garbage.  According to the plan, solid waste generates about 12% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, including gases emitted by landfills, through the burning of waste, and from wastewater treatment.  Most of these emissions represent the long-term decay of organic materials buried in landfills, which will continue to emit methane at a significant rate for more than 30 years.  This is serious because methane is 84 times more damaging as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The state’s climate plan recommends that in order “To reduce emissions to achieve the required 2030 GHG emission reductions, significant increased diversion from landfills as well as emissions monitoring and leak reduction will be needed.  A circular economy approach to materials management is understood and employed.” 

The plan calls for the enactment of legislation to curb the generation of waste by reducing and recycling the waste generated by New Yorkers.  Specifically, the plan calls for expanding the state’s bottle deposit law to additional beverage containers. 

That call has broad-based public support.  In a poll released last week, 71 percent of New Yorkers support expanding the state’s bottle deposit program to include all types of beverage containers, with just 23 percent opposed.  The release of the poll amplified a call from 150 community, civic, and environmental organizations to Governor Hochul to modernize the state’s bottle deposit law as part of her upcoming Executive Budget.

The poll, conducted by Siena Research Institute, found that New Yorkers support the program as a whole.  A majority of respondents stated that the Bottle Bill had reduced litter in the state.  Additionally, the poll found that the majority of New Yorkers support raising the bottle deposit placed on beverage containers from a nickel to a dime.  The nickel deposit has been in place for 40 years.

The state’s Bottle Law has been the most successful litter reduction and recycling program in New York history.  When the law kicked in 40 years ago in 1983, beverage containers were found everywhere, now the overwhelming majority of such containers are redeemed under the program.  But many beverages – most notably non-carbonated sports drinks – didn’t exist four decades ago and are not covered by the law today.  And the nickel deposit was put in place 40 years ago – that 1983 nickel when adjusted for inflation is worth 15 cents today.

There is a lot to be done to overhaul our economy and lifestyle in order to avert the looming catastrophic consequences of global warming.  Ignoring efforts by the fossil fuel industry and their allies to undermine changes, and insisting on science-based solutions, are the only ways society can forestall the effects of a rapidly heating planet.

In 20 years when we are talking to a new generation about what we did to attack the problem of climate change, what will we say?  That we protected gas stoves or took aggressive, science-based steps to slash greenhouse gas emissions?  How we act today will determine the answer to that question.

According to the Oxford dictionary, the word propaganda means: “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.”  The use of propaganda was on display last week at a state Senate hearing on New York’s climate plan.

The state’s Climate Plan was developed over the past two years under a 2019 law that mandates the state meet certain climate goals, eventually leading to virtually no greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.  That overall goal is consistent with one set by the world’s experts, who have warned that unless the world kicks the fossil fuel habit by then runaway global warming will devastate the planet. 

New York’s 2019 law ceded to a Climate Action Council the power to develop the blueprint that the state should follow in order to meet its aggressive, science-based climate goals. 

There were legitimate issues being raised by lawmakers and groups concerned about the ability of the state to implement the blueprint.  But there was also the drumbeat of propaganda, one that bears the fingerprints of the behind-the-scenes work of the fossil fuel industry: “They are coming for your gas stoves!”

The Climate Plan says that in order to meet the requirements of New York’s climate law, the state must stop adding new fossil fuel infrastructure.  Why build new oil and gas pipelines that take decades to pay off if the state has to stop burning those fuels?  Thus, the Climate Plan recommends requiring that new building construction rely on electricity for heating and cooking, not fossil fuels.  In addition, the Climate Plan says that in the future, appliances that run on gas should not be sold. 

The reality is that if you have, say, a gas stove now and you rely on an existing gas pipeline to power it, nothing changes – certainly not right away.  After all, how often do you buy a new stove?  No one is proposing that New Yorkers have to drag their gas stoves out to the garbage.

So who’s behind the effort to rile people up?  A recent New York Times investigation reports that the fossil fuel industry is bankrolling a nationwide effort to pull the plug on the growing effort to reduce carbon emissions and switch to electricity to power society.  The article specifically referenced the campaign in New York State.  According to the Times, the propane gas lobby “committed nearly $900,000 to a New York propane industry group to address the ‘massive challenge from well-funded efforts to electrify the entire state.’”

Their handiwork was apparent during the Senate hearing.  Opponents of the Climate Plan argued that while they supported the climate law, they were concerned that the Plan reduced the use of fossil fuels.  An obvious inconsistency.

The drumbeat of “they’re coming for your gas stoves” was heard again and again and fit in a social media campaign that followed. 

There’s no sugar-coating it: Even under the best of circumstances, the climate costs will be staggering, the planet will continue to heat up, and there will be terrible suffering among all living things. 

And the worst part is that, had the world acted sooner, we could have avoided the tremendous loss of treasure and curbed human suffering.  But we didn’t.  The delay is due to the oil companies and their allies who skillfully lied to the public and successfully deceived us about the real threats.  They attacked policies that could have averted the situation we’re in today – and will be in tomorrow and for years to come.  And they’re still doing it!

The costs to NY will be unprecedented – protecting roadways, mass transit systems, and shorelines from rising sea levels and more intense storms will cost New York tens of billions of dollars.

Who will pick up this huge tab?  Right now, you and I.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  Instead, take a portion of Big Oil’s profits and direct it to the massive infrastructure projects that the state must undertake.  And do it in a way that ensures that those assessments are not passed on to the public.

Now is the time to act.  Not some other year.  Now.  Now is the time to make the oil companies, who are at the root of this problem, accountable.