"Multinational consultancy ICF is well known for its government climate work, but the fossil fuel industry also pays the firm to produce reports it uses to promote oil and gas."
"Last spring, the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), a trade organization representing offshore oil and gas producers, made a startling claim: Producing more oil in the Gulf of Mexico can help “[drive] climate progress forward.”
To support that claim, NOIA cited a new report by ICF, a multinational consultancy known for its rigorous technical analyses on climate and energy topics, in addition to working in healthcare, education, and other sectors. This report, which NOIA hired ICF to write, looked at the emissions associated with producing a barrel of oil in the Gulf and compared them with the emissions tied to oil production in other parts of the world. Wells in the Gulf, ICF found, have relatively high productivity and lower methane emissions compared to others around the world.
ICF did not make any policy recommendations based on these findings—in fact, a disclaimer at the top of the report states that the “non-partisan, non-political” firm doesn’t take advocacy positions at all. But the group that paid for the report had a clear takeaway: policymakers should embrace Gulf of Mexico oil production as a “climate-smart” way of meeting America’s energy needs, as NOIA president Erik Melito put it in a blog post reviewing the ICF report’s findings last May.
A report like this might give the impression that ICF is merely a clearinghouse for fossil fuel industry talking points. But ICF is a respected consultancy with serious environmental credentials that plays a key role in implementing the US climate and energy agenda. For decades, ICF has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency on important technical reports like its annual greenhouse gas inventory. ICF also administers key federal climate and energy programs for the EPA and the Department of Energy. States that are leading the way on climate action also rely on ICF’s technical expertise: They contributed to and reviewed New York’s energy chapter of a statewide climate assessment and prepared an affordability study that will inform the state’s forthcoming cap-and-invest plan. ICF consultants have even helped coordinate and co-author the National Climate Assessment, an authoritative federal government report on how climate change is impacting every corner of the nation.
But while ICF touts this climate-positive work on its website and in corporate reports, an investigation by Drilled found that the firm also works for pro-fossil fuel lobbying groups like NOIA, the American Gas Association, and the American Petroleum Institute. These organizations have paid ICF contractors hundreds of thousands of dollars for their services since 2018, according to publicly available tax filings. The end result is technical reports that the industry can use to fight decarbonization efforts or greenwash oil and gas."
Maddie Stone reports for Drilled June 25, 2024.
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