Racism and Discrimination in the Oil and Gas Industry

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With the recent focus on systemic racism in America, the oil and gas industry isย depicting itself as leading on the issue of diversity in the workforce. However, its public relations efforts and slick advertisements do not reflect the industry’s actualย behavior.

In early June, as protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police went global,ย American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers released a statement vowing that America’s most powerful fossil fuel lobbying organization โ€œhas zero tolerance for discrimination of anyย kind.โ€ย 

Around the same time, the group โ€œshared with Axios upon a request for commentโ€ internal data showing that women and people of color would fill 54 percent of new jobs created in the sectorย over the next twoย decades.

But Sommer’s claimsย that the oil and gas industryย will not tolerate any type of discriminationย haven’t stood up veryย well.ย 

A new report by the group Global Witnessย highlights the hugeย gap between the reality of what the oil industry and its main lobbying group says on issues of discrimination and what it really does.ย Using Chevron as anย example.

Chevron CEO Mike Wirth has been the only leader of a major oil and gas company to make a statement condeming police โ€œkillings of unarmed black men and womenโ€ย in America. But Global Witness details how Chevron donates to politicians whose voting records have earned them a grade of โ€œFโ€ from the NAACP when it comes to their voting records on civilย rights.

These politicians include Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who recently described slavery in the U.S. as a โ€œnecessary evil upon which the union was built.โ€ย Cotton earned his NAACP failing gradeย for voting just 7 percentย of the timeย in support of civil rights. In early June, Cotton described the overwhelmingly peaceful George Floyd marches as an โ€œorgy of violenceโ€ย  in The New York Times, and advocated for sending active U.S. military troops into American cities to โ€œrestoreย order.โ€

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has received an NAACP grade of โ€œFโ€ for his voting record on civil rights, and also has received more money from the oil and gas industry in the 2020 election cycle ($705,524) than any other Congressional representative, including $10,000 from Chevron. At a Juneย Senate hearing on police violence, Cornyn rejected the idea that the U.S. had issues of systemic racism within the ranks of the police and society as aย whole.ย 

Report: Industry Guilty of Environmental Racism While Fundingย Policeย 

Another new analysis, from the research organization LittleSis, highlights the long history of environmental racism perpetrated by the oil and gas industryย including the industry’s ongoing financial support of police departments across America, which contrasts with the industry’s public relationsย efforts.ย 

โ€œWhether itโ€™s posing as green advocates while it intensifies its extraction and burning of fossil fuels, or uttering a few canned words about racial justice as it disproportionately pollutes Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities and helps bankroll police foundations,โ€ Derek Seidman, co-author of the report, toldย DeSmog.ย โ€œThe fossil fuel industry has a long history of using public relations gestures as cover for its destructiveย practices.โ€ย 

LittleSis also singles out Chevron, noting that the firmย owns refineries known for polluting communities of people of colorย and funds policeย departments.

Chevron is well known for its greenwashing efforts, with its work on the โ€œPeople Doโ€ campaign in the 1980s earning a distinction of being a โ€œtextbook case of successful greenwashingโ€ย according to someย environmentalists.ย 

Image: Fossil fuel funding of police departments.ย  Credit: Littleย Sis

Fracking Exec: โ€œWhat is a Japanese woman doing on thisย beat?โ€

A recent report in The New York Times highlighting the fracking industry’s financial failuresย drew anย openly racist email response from an industry executive, who focused on the journalist’s ethnicity rather than the content of theย story.

โ€œWhat is a Japanese woman doing on this beat anyway?,โ€ Brian Petty of Wison, an oil and gas industry services firm, wrote to reporter Hiroko Tabuchi.ย โ€œCan’t the Times find an Americanย journalist?โ€

The American Petroleum Institute did not respond to a request for comment on Petty’sย message toย Tabuchi.ย 

But his apparent comfort with racism is of a piece with the industry’s long history of both environmental racism and lack of minority hiring.ย According to a 2018 US News article, Black workers made up only 9 percent of the oil and gas industry workforce in 2018 and were paid 23 percent less than their whiteย counterparts.ย 

โ€œIt’s not uncommon in a lot of these areas to see people with Confederate flags and things of that nature,โ€ Tosa Nehikhuere, an oil well engineer,ย told US News. โ€œFor a black [sic] person working in that environment, a lot of times it can be very uncomfortable because they obviously don’t fit in with thatย culture.โ€

Oil Industry Continues to Claim Its Motivation Is to Lift People Out of Poverty andย Insecurity

As we have reported at DeSmog for years, rich white fossil energy executives like to say the reason they want to bring oil, gas, and coalย to African nations, as well as other areas of the world without widespread electrification, is to help lift people out ofย poverty.

โ€œWhat you got to remember is that there are people out there that still donโ€™t have electricity, they donโ€™t have running water, they canโ€™t refrigerate medicines, they canโ€™t refrigerate food,โ€ then-CEO of Exxon Rex Tillerson told the crowd at the University of Texasย VIPย Speaker Series in 2016, andย โ€โ€ฆ they would like to have accessย toย energy.โ€

Meanwhile, the industryโ€™s track record in Africa is full of examples โ€” like Exxonโ€™s alliance with the dictatorship in Equatorial Guineaย โ€” that appearย to contradict Tillerson’s comments.ย This relationship led to investigations by both the U.S. Senate and the Securities and Exchange Commission into illegal payments to dictator Teodoro Obiang and his relatives and associates from Exxon and other U.S. oilย companies.

Equatorial Guinea’s oil deals with U.S. energy companies enriched the dictator of what was described in a 2017 Washington Post opinion piece by Tutu Alicante, a human rights activist, as โ€œAfricaโ€™s nastiest dictatorship,ย even as โ€œnearly two-thirds of the population lives in extremeย poverty.โ€

A 2005 investigation by Mother Jones reported that Equatorial Guinea was โ€œan all-too-real example of how a dictator, awash in petrodollars, enriches himself and his family while starving hisย people.โ€ย 

As usual, the oil industry says one thing and doesย another.ย 

DeSmogUK recently reported on a paper from the climate-denying UK groupย Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) that echoed this industry cant about the benefits ofย bringing fossil-fueled electrification to Africa. In a stunning lack of awareness, GWPF named the report after Joseph Conradโ€™s novel Heart of Darkness, an overtly racist textย involving European colonialism inย Africa.

It’s aย strange choice for an organization arguing it just wants to help Africa by bringing it the gift of electricity. But if fossil fuels are used to expand electrification in Africa, it likely guarantees that climate change and extreme heat will make large portions of the continent โ€œwarmer than conditions deemed suitable for human life toย flourish.โ€

APIโ€™s Claims of Diversity Ringย Hollow

The issue of racism and sexism in the oil and gas industryย is well established. A 2017 investigation by National Public Radio (NPR) summed that up with the headline โ€œBig Oil Has A Diversityย Problem.โ€

Charles Simpson,ย a Black man working in a mostly white oil and gas industry union in Oklahoma,ย told NPR about the racist abuse he was subjected to on the job โ€” which led him toย quit.ย 

โ€œThe racism in this job, it’s unreal,โ€ Simpson said, โ€œIt’s unchecked and I believe it’s designed to scare individuals off.โ€ย ย 

That NPR report also stated that โ€œThe oil industry can beย a difficult place to work forย women.โ€

The U.S. press has been touting Chevronโ€™s recent acquisition of Noble Energy. Noble Energy is an excellent example of how the industry handles sexism and sexualย harassment.ย 

In May, Agendaย published a detailed investigation, based on video taken by a female employee, that showed Noble Energy general counsel Arnold Johnson โ€œsecretly video-recording her lower extremitiesโ€ under hisย desk.ย 

With the evidence in hand, this woman then attempted to navigate the corporate culture to hold Johnsonย accountable.ย 

And the evidence was damning. As Agenda reports, Michael Melbinger, a partner at law firm Winston & Strawn, explained that this was clearly a fireable offense (and also a crime in Texas). โ€œI would hope for the sake of the board, there wasnโ€™t evidence,โ€ Melbinger told Agenda, โ€œItโ€™s hard to think of a much clearer โ€” well, embezzlement or maybe shooting someone โ€” but other than that, thatโ€™s a pretty clear cause toย me.โ€

With such a clear case, what did the board at Noble do? Allow Johnson to resign to โ€œpursue personalย interests.โ€

And they did one other thing. They paid him over $9 million as a partingย gift.ย 

โ€œAccording to the report, Johnson was just part of a larger problem of the corporate culture at the company.ย Women could only kinda look at the glass ceiling, but not really touch it,โ€ a former in-house lawyer toldย Agenda.

This is the company that Chevron is currently acquiringย for $13ย billion.

White Militia in the U.S. Oil and Gasย Industry

There is a strong element of racism in the oil patch as well as in the industry’s C-suites.ย In a recent investigation,ย DeSmog’s Justin Nobel reports on the infiltration of the oil and gas industry by a far-right militant group called the Threeย Percenters.

James Brugh,ย a resident of the community of Four Bears on western North Dakotaโ€™s Fort Berthold Indian Reservation,ย described to Nobel the racist attitude of these oil and gas employees.ย โ€œItโ€™s like the second coming of the cavalry, they treat our land like itโ€™s the Wild West,โ€ he said. โ€œThese guys come here to the rez at Fort Berthold thinking they are soldiers of fortune, with this wild gunslinger mentality. I have heard enough of these guys talking about us like we are subhuman, like we are notย people.โ€ย 

Diversity in Advertising and Press Releases, Not in the Realย World

Much asย the oil and gas industry likes to run ads touting its efforts to address climate change while continuing to fight climate regulations,ย it also runs ads full of diversity. This video clip touting the benefits of natural gas opens with a cast of people ofย color.

Video: Short: How Natural Gas Is Used To Generate Electricityย  Credit: American Petroleumย Institute

But despite its slick videos and press releases, the reality of the oil and gas businessย is that it has a well-documented history of systemic racism and sexism that it has failed toย address.

The fossil fuel industry effectively fought the reality of climate change for decades with misleading advertising.ย Now it appears to be following a similar strategy when it comes to the industry’s efforts to promote itself as supporting diversity, while at the same time funding politicians and organizations opposing such effortsย and turning a blind eye to the ongoing discrimination in theย industry.ย ย 

Main image:ย  Oil field infrastructure in the Permian region of Texasย  Credit: ยฉย Justin Hamel, May 27,ย 2020.

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Justin Mikulka is a research fellow at New Consensus. Prior to joining New Consensus in October 2021, Justin reported for DeSmog, where he began in 2014. Justin has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University.

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