“Shell has been engaging in what we consider to be pretty egregious greenwashing,” Zorka Milin, a senior legal adviser at Global Witness, told The Climate 202. “And we would like to invite scrutiny from the appropriate authorities.”
The complaint alleges that Shell has improperly included gas investments in the category “Renewables and Energy Solutions” in its annual reports to the SEC."
"Oil giant Shell accused of 'greenwashing' and misleading investors" (gift link to avoid paywall), Maxine Joselow, Washington Post, Feb 1, 2023
In recent days, Joselow wrote, ExxonMobil reported "a record annual profit of $55.7 billion for 2022, soaring past its earlier record of $45 billion in 2008," and Chevron reported "a $36.5 billion annual profit for 2022 that was more than double its earnings last year."
Update in this March 2023 WSJ article:
"Among the targets [of 'a massive corporate hacking campaign' in 2017] was the Rockefeller Family Fund, a charity created by some of the heirs of John D. Rockefeller, who founded Exxon’s forebear Standard Oil. The fund has for years been involved in campaigns arguing that Exxon hid from the public the full extent of what it knew internally about climate change and the role fossil fuels played in causing it.
Exxon has long denied those allegations."
"Federal agents arrested Mr. [Aviram] Azari in 2019," and he "pleaded guilty in April 2022 to participating in a hacking conspiracy, wire fraud and identity theft." As of this March 2023 article, he still hasn't been sentenced.
"Lee Wasserman, director of the Rockefeller Family Fund, said he hoped Mr. Azari would disclose who hired him. 'This defendant did not decide on his own to follow and target climate advocates in the U.S. from halfway around the world. He was clearly working for corporate actors in this country,' Mr. Wasserman said."
See also: How Exxon tried to twist climate science for profit: New internal documents reported by the Wall Street Journal illustrate exactly why thousands are taking to the street to protest fossil fuels this week. Arielle Samuelson. Heated. September 19, 2023
See also: "How an Early Oil Industry Study Became Key in Climate Lawsuits." For decades, 1960s research for the American Petroleum Institute warning of the risks of burning fossil fuels had been forgotten. But two papers discovered in libraries are now playing a key role in lawsuits aimed at holding oil companies accountable for climate change. Beth Gardiner. Yale Environment 360. November 30, 2022.
A few months ago, in July 2022, CNN reported that "ExxonMobil's net income came to $2,245.62 every second of every day of the 92-day long quarter. On that basis, Chevron earned $1,462.11 per second."
"$2,245.62 a second: ExxonMobil scores enormous profit on record gas prices." Chris Isidore. CNN Business. July 29, 2022.
In December 2022 NPR article about how the US should decrease its power plant emissions.
Divestment works, as suggested in this October 2021 opinion in the New York Times (paywalled).
See also: "Yes, Climate Change is Expensive". It's a 9-minute read on Medium.
Also
"In the Dark: How Social Media Companies' Climate Disinformation Problem is Hidden from the Public. Ranking Big Tech on transparency, A Report by Friends of the Earth, Avaaz, and Greenpeace USA." April 21, 2022
"What Happens When a Black Enclave Is Built by Big Oil: The oil industry attracted Black folks to Beaumont, Texas. A century later, they’re left battling a climate, housing, and health crisis." Adam Mahoney, Capital B, Apr 3, 2023.
"The world’s biggest banks are still pouring money into fossil fuels," Nicole Goodkind, CNN, April 20, 2023
"...Grekin and five other graduate students signed their names to an Oct. 5 [2023] letter proposing new rules that would force a much stricter standard for fossil fuel funding for Stanford’s research.
The letter focuses on Stanford’s industry “affiliate” research programs — meaning that for a membership fee, corporations can contribute to research at Stanford — and proposes to “eliminate financial sponsorship” from any company that “does not provide a credible transition plan.” It also proposes to block funding from any company that has obstructed climate policy in the last five years.
This policy would, effectively, bar most fossil fuel companies (including Exxon) from sponsoring Stanford affiliate research."
— "An Exxon-funded scientist speaks out". “There are definitely ways that [fossil fuel funding] can influence the research," she tells HEATED, as the fight for university divestment heats up. Arielle Samuelson, Heated (Substack), Oct 31, 2023
"With test-wells across campus, Brown University explores geothermal energy as renewable heat source." With a pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040, data from three test-wells will determine if conversion to a geothermal energy system can provide a renewable approach to heating campus buildings. Brown University press release, November 2, 2023.
Pssst, this is not true
Oil and gas receives subsidies
In December 2015, Bill McKibben recalls, "the U.S. Congress, with almost no notice or debate, did something that may completely undercut the chances for a 1.5 or even a 2 degree world. It repealed the longstanding ban on exporting U.S. oil abroad. The GOP-led House had passed a similar bill earlier in the fall, but it took concurrence from the Senate—and, in this case, from several key Democratic senators, who took a deal that extended 'production tax credits' for wind turbines in exchange for lifting the export ban that had been in place since the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970s." At the time, he penned an opinion in favor of keeping the ban in place. However, he admits now, "even as we worked on the piece, though, we knew it was likely a lost cause. Exxon wanted it ('the sooner this happens, the better for us,' its spokesman explained), and there was simply no way to rally a fight against the change with every environmental journalist on earth focused instead on the outcome of the Paris talks" — which were happening simultaneously. "And so the ban was lifted, and the damage has been massive. America is now the largest exporter of gas and oil on earth, having roared past Russia and Saudi Arabia." He says the Biden administration "must do" what is necessary to reverse this: cease licensing new LNG facilities. "We’re very much in the endgame; the question is who will play it better. The oil industry won in 2015; they’ve got to lose in 2023."
eXports eXports eXports The dirtiest word in the climate lexicon, Bill McKibben, November 1, 2023
Fossil Fuel Subsidies Surged to Record $7 Trillion: Scaling back subsidies would reduce air pollution, generate revenue, and make a major contribution to slowing climate change. Simon Black, Ian Parry, Nate Vernon. August 24, 2023.
House committee schedules 2nd hearing on oil and gas industry’s role in climate disinformation, Rene Marsh, CNN, January 21, 2022
On California tax revenue from fossil fuels:
Quitting Oil Income Is Hard, Even for States That Want Climate Action
Dozens of state and local budgets depend heavily on tax revenue from oil, gas and coal to fund schools, hospitals and more. Replacing that money is turning out to be a major challenge in the fight against climate change.
Brad Plumer, July 7, 2022
‘Inconsistent with human survival’: UN chief slams fossil fuel industry expansion in Davos speech, Ivana Kottasová, CNN, January 18, 2023
Major banks pledging net zero are pouring money into the dirtiest fossil fuel, Reuters (on CNN), Feb 15, 2022
Amid Troubles for Fossil Fuels, Has the Era of ‘Peak Oil’ Arrived? For years, analysts have predicted that rising world oil consumption would peak and start declining in the coming decades. But with a recent string of setbacks for big oil companies and the rapid advance of electric vehicles, some now say that “peak oil” is already here. Fred Pearce, June 24, 2021
Deep underground, in France, scientists found a deposit of "between 6 million and 250 million metric tons of hydrogen." It's called "white hydrogen."
They went hunting for fossil fuels. What they found could help save the world, CNN, October 29, 2023
2025: "Fossil fuels are ending," Technosphere
Ask an Expert: How Strong is the Case Against Fossil Fuel Companies for Climate Fraud? Union of Concerned Scientists, The Equation, May 15, 2025
Exxon’s new greenwashing ploy The oil giant claims it can eliminate more than 90 percent of emissions from gas-powered AI facilities. Critics say that’s nonsense.
Emily Sanders, HEATED, Dec 18, 2025
It’s one thing that Western countries couldn’t care less about "climate targets". Quite another that they’re building up a massive, greedy fleet of fossile vehicles, whilst people outside those are breathing in that filth from the moment they’re born.
XOXO suckers.
cleantechnica.com/2026/10/24/c...
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— Katja Diehl (@katjadiehl.bsky.social) October 26, 2026 at 2:00 PM
