For Oil Industry, Smog Fight Was Dress Rehearsal for Climate Denial

"Through the Smoke and Fumes Committee, industry blurred the science surrounding air pollution and worked to forestall unwanted regulation."

"When the smog plaguing Los Angeles reached distressing levels in the early 1950s, the city hired Arie Haagen-Smit to study the cause. Not only was Haagen-Smit a scientist specializing in airborne microscopic chemicals, he was also angry about the state of the city's air. His work swiftly determined that the culprit was oil.

Following a hunch, Haagen-Smit built an unorthodox laboratory that accurately demonstrated how nitrogen oxide and uncombusted hydrocarbons from tailpipes and refineries react in sunlight to produce smog. His findings unnerved oil companies, which feared onerous regulation would follow. So when another scientist, Harold Johnston, challenged Haagen-Smit's findings, the industry's main consulting group hired him.

'They said terrible things about Haagen-Smit...I was given the job of overthrowing his theory entirely,' Johnston recalled in an oral history years later. 'I rapidly concluded that Haagen-Smit was a genius!'"

Neela Banerjee, David Hasemyer, and Lisa Song report for InsideClimate News June 6, 2016.