Big Oil Panics Over Accountability (After Decades of Dodging It)
According to The Hill, Big Oil is suddenly 'panicking' because courts and regulators are, for the first time in what feels like forever, looking at their climate destruction. The article conveniently sidesteps the decades of documented campaigns where companies like ExxonMobil funded climate denial, aggressively lobbied against environmental legislation, and spent millions securing political
allies. One might wonder if this 'panic' is less about genuine concern and more about a PR strategy to soften the inevitable financial blows, after years of ensuring their 'accountability' only extended to showering politicians with campaign donations. For example, ExxonMobil alone spent over $11 million lobbying in 2023, according to OpenSecrets.org, consistently ranking among the top spenders in
the oil and gas industry—a spending pattern that curiously precedes any 'accountability' The Hill now touts as new.