Geoff Dembicki / October 8, 2024
"Defend BP"
Emails Reveal BP Gave $550,000 to Group Fighting Climate Lawsuits
The Manufacturer’s Accountability Project is ubiquitous fighting cities’ and states’ suits against oil companies. Now it’s clear it’s being funded directly by at least one of those companies.

For years, a group called the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project has defended Exxon, BP, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and others against lawsuits seeking to hold the oil and gas industry liable for deceiving the public about climate change and make it pay for damages associated with a warmer climate. The group has issued dozens of press statements attacking the lawsuits, been quoted in mainstream media, and hassled organizers of legal conferences—all the while claiming to be advocating for “American families and businesses.” This summer, the group’s special counsel helped write an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down climate litigation as unconstitutional.

But the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project, also known as MAP, has a powerful industry backer that it hasn’t made public. The group has quietly received $550,000 from the American subsidiary of the oil and gas producer BP.

“For decades, Big Oil has deployed an armada of phony front groups flush with dark money in order to influence the courts, public opinion, and policymakers to protect its polluting products and lock in a future dependent on fossil fuels,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, chairman of the Budget Committee, said in a statement sent to The New Republic. “BP’s covert funding of the Manufacturers’ Accountability Project,” he added, “represents an effort to interfere with cities and states seeking accountability from oil and gas companies, including BP, for the escalating costs of climate-driven disasters.”

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