DeSmogUK recently posted interesting stories on fossil-fuel lobbying. In one piece, DeSmog nails down some of the numbers for ExxonMobil’s European lobbying efforts, pegging 2014's spending at a little over $8 million. Those funds went to a variety of universities and organizations—including the UN Environment Program and Oxford—to secure goodwill and shore up the fossil fuel industry's struggling image. This is timely news, as California’s attorney general has just begun an investigation into what #ExxonKnew.
Another DeSmogUK story connects the dots between Matt Ridley’s pro-fossil-fuel work and his family's estate, which is home to a huge opencast coal mine. While the motive for his constant disparaging of renewables is clear enough, the piece lays bare an even more concrete connection. Apparently the Banks Group—the energy company that operates the Ridley family's coal mine on Ridley’s land—has significant wind investments, which means Ridley’s coal is a direct competitor in their portfolio.
It’s a little complicated, but DeSmogUK suggests the following scenario by way of explanation:
In 2014, the Banks Group saw that a looming Conservative government would follow the policy advice of Ridley to reduce subsidies for wind power. (Ridley is an advisor to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which is run by the prominent Conservative politician, Lord Lawson.)
To mitigate the loss from that wind subsidy cut, the Banks Group ramped up coal production, going from 683,000 tons in 2013 to over 1 million tonnes in 2014 (which DeSmog notes was primarily from Ridley’s estate). In 2013, when wind subsidies weren’t in jeopardy, the Banks Group made £11 million in coal profits. In 2014, with the specter of subsidy cuts on the horizon, that number jumped to £27 million. In 2015, the Banks Group's expectations were met when the newly installed Tories came into power and promptly ended wind farm subsidies.
What we see is that Ridley supplied the talking points to justify the Conservative government’s wind subsidy cuts. In anticipation of these cuts, the company mining his coal ramped up production to offset the wind losses, thereby ensuring greater royalties for Ridley.
So while Exxon has to spend money on lobbying in the short-term to protect its long-term profits, it appears that Ridley’s lobbying makes him money in the short-term, at the expense of the climate's long-term stability.
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