In many cases, oil and gas companies are using direct advertising but some targeted lobbying appears to be more opaque. A new study of Facebook’s advertising disclosure platform by InfluenceMap suggests oil companies and their trade groups have spent $17m directly on political social media advertisements since May 2018. BP gave Protect Colorado $300,000 in October 2018, a month after relocating its US onshore headquarters from Houston to Denver. The out-of-state fracking firms Noble Energy and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, based in Houston, Texas, put $6m each into Protect Colorado. They exploited people’s fears that the setback would mean big job losses.”The Guardian contacted Protect Colorado but it failed to respond.

Source: The Guardian October 10, 2019 10:52 UTC