This article was written by Keith Stewart and was published in the Toronto Star on August 12, 2023.

KEITH STEWART IS THE SENIOR ENERGY STRATEGIST AT GREENPEACE CANADA

Alongside the literal fires currently consuming Canada’s boreal forest, climate change has put a metaphorical torch to the long-standing alliance between Big Oil and Big Auto. I say, let them fight.

When I started working on climate change in the 1990s, there was an unbroken wall of resistance from oil, coal and car companies to any measure to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. They came together in the Global Climate Coalition, which ran a sophisticated (and utterly unscrupulous) advertising and public relations campaign to cast doubt on the science of climate change. The companies’ own scientists had told them that the science was solid, but the campaign promoted doubt in order to blunt public concern and thereby delay political action.

The Global Climate Coalition was formally disbanded in 2002, but climate denial campaigns continued under a variety of different names and sponsors. As it became increasingly difficult for them to undermine the science, the fossil fuel lobby leaned into the argument that there was no viable alternative to what they were selling.

Like a bad relationship, we were being asked to believe that while we might not love fossil fuels, we needed them. As technology improved and public concern over climate impacts grew, that claim was on increasingly shaky ground. This led to cracks in the united front.

First, Big Oil threw King Coal under the bus to steal market share. As pressure grew to phase out coalfired electricity on climate grounds, oil and gas companies jumped in to offer “natural” gas as a cheap and easy replacement for coal. Here in Canada, for example, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers wholeheartedly supported the Alberta NDP’s 2015 coal phaseout plan.

Now car companies are launching what could be a very messy divorce, and oil giants are lashing out.

After steadfastly championing the internal combustion engine over the last century, the major car companies are rolling out electric vehicles in response to consumer demand and (more importantly) government mandates. They are, however, hedging their bet by continuing to massively advertise their gasoline-powered SUVs and pickup trucks.

Behind the scenes, oil companies lobbied to tip the scales in their direction. A 2018 New York Times investigation found that an oil company (Marathon Petroleum) was working with powerful oil-industry groups and a conservative policy network financed by the billionaire industrialist Charles Koch to run a stealth campaign designed to roll back car emissions standards.

This resonated with then-president Donald Trump, but the Biden administration is big on electrification. Even Ontario’s Conservative Premier Doug Ford, who killed electric vehicle incentives and even ripped out EV charging stations when he first came to power, has reversed course and is now “all in” on electric vehicles.

Perhaps sensing that the ground is shifting beneath their feet, Big Oil is now taking the fight out of the back rooms and onto the airwaves. Investigative journalist Amy Westervelt recently spotted “the first modern-day anti-EV ad from an oil company,” wherein ExxonMobil urges consumers to “break free” from the electric cords that bind “for the love of driving.”

This is a good sign — it tells me that they are afraid.

Afraid of how a transition to electric vehicles — not just cars, but also e-bikes and vastly expanded, electrified public transit — will affect the demand for gasoline and diesel. Afraid of how cheap wind and solar power is undercutting gas-fired generating stations the same way gas shouldered out coal-fired power. Afraid of how public concern over the increasingly obvious devastation from climate chaos could drive away their remaining political allies.

Nevertheless, the oil industry still wields immense wealth and power.

Rather than handing public dollars to these companies for more executive bonuses and share buybacks, we should invest in supporting the workers and communities currently dependent on fossil fuel extraction through the transition to clean energy.

It is also important to put in place safeguards so we avoid replicating the human rights and environmental harms of the fossil fuel industry as we build a new one grounded in renewable energy and batteries.

After decades of fighting a losing battle on climate action, it may seem odd for an old activist to see an oil company ad as a beacon of hope. But it reminds me that there is a better world still there to be won.