A ‘grassroots’ group ran Facebook ads against the oil and gas emissions cap. Canada’s most powerful oil lobby paid for them

Canada’s most powerful oil lobby group is paying for Facebook ads urging Canadians to oppose greenhouse gas emissions limits on the oil and gas industry. Only the ads aren't coming from the lobby group — they're posted by a self-described “grassroots” oil and gas advocacy group.

The ads, launched Sept. 9 by Canada’s Energy Citizens and paid for by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), warn that imposing a cap on the industry could reduce Canada’s oil and gas production and “harm workers.” A link leads to a petition, which argues “the world has changed.” It also cites global energy security and a “struggling Canadian economy” as reasons an emissions cap is an “unrealistic” solution.

For the most part, the ads target people in Ontario, Alberta and, to a lesser extent, B.C., according to the Facebook Ad Library. The data reveals CAPP spent more than $23,000 on ads posted by Canada’s Energy Citizens about “social issues, elections or politics” from Sept. 7 to 13. From June 2019 to present, that figure exceeds $500,000. Ads that link to the petition were viewed on a screen approximately one million times collectively, according to the data.

Capping emissions from the oil and gas sector was a key campaign promise of the Liberals. In July, the government published a paper outlining what this could look like. The details and timeline of the cap will be announced by early 2023, according to the federal government. In March, the federal government released a climate plan that included a target for the oil and gas sector to reduce its emissions 31 per cent relative to 2005 levels by 2030.

Despite many oil companies going public with their own emissions reduction goals, CEOs and industry association leaders have taken to the opinion sections of publications like the Globe and Mail and CBC to lament the tight timeline of the federal government’s targets. Members of the Pathways Alliance, an organization of six large oilsands companies “working together to address climate change,” have advertised their commitments to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and a desire to help Canada achieve its climate goals.

The petition and ad campaign launched by Canada’s Energy Citizens mark a stark departure from that type of messaging, says Greenpeace Canada senior energy strategist Keith Stewart, who brought the ads to Canada’s National Observer’s attention.

The group’s argument that Canada should be the one to provide oil and gas to the world is simply “good old-fashioned climate denial,” said Stewart.

“The way I read it is they're saying: The world has changed, there's too much money to be made, so let's let the future burn and make as much money as we can right now.”

At a glance, the Facebook ads from Canada’s Energy Citizens look like just that: a campaign by a group of concerned citizens. But the truth is more insidious, said Stewart.

“This isn't just, you know, regular Joe or Jane who's expressing their concerns,” Stewart told Canada’s National Observer in an interview. “This is an organized push by public relations firms who are working on behalf of the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the country.”

After decades of downplaying the risks of climate change and flat-out denying it, the oil and gas industry has changed tack to use modern marketing techniques that are “arguably far more insidious,” according to a new report by the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee. Among the tactics mentioned are “falsely depicting industry as joining the fight against climate change” and “engineering astroturf ‘citizen’ groups to advocate for industry interests and defeat legislative proposals.”

In 2014, CAPP created Canada’s Energy Citizens, modelling it off a U.S. front group started by the American Petroleum Institute, political economist Gordon Laxer wrote in his December 2021 report on Big Foreign Oil. The website for Canada’s Energy Citizens is run by CAPP, uses the same phone number and even appears to share a media relations email with the industry association: [email protected].

The group’s website professes to provide “a membership of over 500,000 grassroots Canadians” with tools to stand up for the country’s oil and gas sector.

Neither CAPP nor Canada’s Energy Citizens responded to requests for comment by deadline.

“(Oil and gas companies) use front groups like this to try to make it seem like an authentic grassroots push but also to keep the companies’ names out of it, let the industry association do the dirty work,” said Stewart.

“This way, you know, their logo isn't on this petition but they're paying for it … it’s their dues that fund CAPP and there's no way something like this comes out of CAPP without the major players being OK with it.”

Suncor, Imperial Oil, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Cenovus and Shell did not respond to requests for comment by deadline. These companies and others, pay membership dues to CAPP, which in turn can be used to advocate for the industry through lobbying and marketing efforts like this.

Stewart says these types of astroturfing activities are concerning because citizens don’t realize oil companies are actually the ones writing these “grassroots” messages and calls to action.

In marketing, you want your target audience to think they’re getting a message from someone like themselves so they feel taking action is in their best interest, he said. CAPP, through Canada’s Energy Citizens, is trying to make something written by a public relations firm for oil companies seem like it's coming from family and friends, said Stewart. “And it's not.”

CAPP taking a hard line against the oil and gas emissions cap will not change the federal government’s promise to Canadians, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s press secretary Kaitlin Power said in an emailed statement to Canada’s National Observer.

Power noted receiving “a couple mass emails from both sides of the debate.”

The statement acknowledged oil and gas demand will decline and says the oil and gas industry can get on board if they invest now because competition “will get fierce” and low-cost, low-carbon energy will win out.

“A cleaner, brighter future of good, sustainable jobs, affordable clean energy and a more stable climate is achievable if the oil and gas industry invests now,” it reads.

The solution to both the climate crisis and the current energy price crunch — driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine — is to move faster and further on the transition to renewables, and it terrifies the oil and gas industry that people realize that, said Stewart.