That charitable organisation Environmental Defence has recently published a 23 page report called Big Oil Playbook : Fossil Fuel Industry Exposed. The report is playfully illustrated, but quite serious in concept; its purpose is clearly laid out on the first page:
The goal of this report is to paint a clear picture of how oil and gas companies operate, how they generate support for the industry and leverage it against effective climate solutions. Some of their tactics, like greenwashing and lobbying, have been well-publicized. Yet others have been largely hidden from the public, like funding astroturf groups, supporting anti-renewable energy campaigns, and infiltrating educational institutions.
The report documents ten established tactics used by the fossil industry in its battle against climate activism and decarbonisation policy. Currents interviewed one of its lead authors, Emilia Belliveau from Environmental Defence Canada, about this project. The broadcast version of this story is in two episodes. In the first part, Emilia explains the ten standard tactics. In the second part we dig a bit deeper into the details: how these tactics work, and their effects on communities and political life.
Currents asked Ms Belliveau what her connection with this project is, and what she hopes to achieve.
I work for Environmental Dependence Canada, where we do advocacy for climate policy and environmental protections. We do a lot of work trying to make sure that governments are protecting communities and working to address the climate crisis. And over the years we have been following the lobbying activity and the influence of the fossil fuel industry and the way that industry is interacting with government to prevent really ambitious climate policies or pushing to roll back climate policies that have been in place.
The Relentless Lobbyist: Illustration by Jake Tobin from Big Oil Playbook (Environmental Defence, 2025)
The Playbook report is an attempt to respond to the industry’s organised lobbying and influence efforts. Emilia describes the industry as seeking what she calls “social license,” the tacit consent and approval of the public for the industry’s activities and the way it does business.
So what we wanted to do with this report is draw attention to the different strategies and tactics that the fossil fuel industry is using in order to maintain both its power and influence — that it then uses to get what it wants with government and to influence society, influence our communities, to be supportive or be accepting of these fossil fuel industry activities. So we call that social license. It’s what the industry does to cultivate support: get people to think that the outcomes, the damage, the harms that the fossil fuel industry does, are all justified because of these other things. And they use a lot of really sophisticated tactics to hold onto and generate that social license for their industry.
In the Playbook, Environmental Defence has condensed the industry’s PR and political efforts into ten major categories, and provided a description and deconstruction of each one.
We’re laying out these 10 tactics that the fossil fuel industry is using, we’re showing how they work in a coordinated way, and we’re connecting the dots between some of the tactics that are more publicly well known — like fossil fuel industry lobbying — with some of the things that are not as well known to the public, like the revolving door. That is, the workforce that is moving between fossil fuel industry executive positions and regulatory positions, or the public service. We’re drawing attention to these things — things we think are really problematic, and explain why Canada is having such a hard time transitioning off of fossil fuels and addressing the climate crisis.
The Front Group: illustration by Jake Tobin from Big Oil Playbook (Environmental Defence, 2025)
Emilia lists the ten basic tactics in the industry’s standard playbook:
One: Everywhere Advertisements, or saturation ads and greenwashing.
Four, the Petro Puppeteer, or recruitment of active spokespeople to influence communities.
Five, Front Groups, or the establishment and funding of “astroturf” and other think tanks and action groups not always openly connected to the industry.
Seven, the Relentless Lobbyist, or investing heavily in personal meetings between industry lobbyists and lawmakers at the federal level.
Eight, the Revolving Door, or the migration back and forth of executives and other high-level employees between Big Oil and government.
Nine, the Illusionist, or the promotion and marketing of unrealistic solutions such as Carbon Capture, to reassure the public that fossil business-as-usual is safe and sustainable.
Ten, the Renewable Rundown, or the denigration and undermining of renewable energy and other climate change mitigation efforts.
Our discussion with Emilia covers all these ten tactics and their impacts in more detail (see podcasts above). Despite the industry’s apparent success in delaying any action on climate change and decarbonisation, Emilia feels there are ways to move forward. She acknowledges that all extractive and destructive industries try to maintain a stranglehold on communities where they operate, keeping people afraid of unemployment and poverty if the industry scales back or shuts down. This makes those communities particularly vulnerable to their propaganda. But she sees no reason to despair.
The Good Neighbour: illustration by Jake Tobin, The Big Oil Playbook (Environmental Defence, 2025)
While I can understand that people have concerns about their livelihoods, who work directly in fossil fuels, there’s a few options on the table, but all within this basic understanding that we know we need to transition away from fossil fuels in order to have a stable climate one day.
So the trade offs here are huge. The science is super clear. The burning of fossil fuels causes climate change. And we now have options available to us with clean technologies, and a whole slate of climate solutions that that are at our fingertips. But we need the bravery to implement them.
And so for folks who work in the fossil fuel sector there’s a lot of overlapping skills that can be brought to other sectors, including in the clean energy and clean tech sector. If you’re working as an electrician, as a pipe fitter, there’s lots of skills in that space that are transferable to what we hope to grow as a clean energy industry as part of this transition.
Democratic engagement at the community level, she feels, is central to moving forward.
Fossil Future? illustration by Midjourney, prompt by author
We should be creating the space for communities to get together and talk about that, and think about what type of transitions the community could go through, to have a a stable and thriving economy that isn’t reliant on fossil fuel extraction. So what does it look like? What type of values does the community have? What type of assets does the community have? What type of economy do you want to build?
All of these things are, I think, actually important opportunities for people who are part of a community to have their voices heard and to do that collective work together. With their local governments and with support from the federal and provincial governments, to reimagine what what the basis of economic activity in a region could look like. or in a place could look like, and ideally do so in a way that both reflects the values of community and doesn’t actively harm the ecosystem.
Renewable Future? Illustration by Midjourney, prompt by author
[Illustrations as credited inline. Original interview conducted by Roy Hales, remixed and engineered for radio by De Clarke. Podcast images: illustrations by Jake Tobin from the Big Oil Playbook, Environmental Defence 2025.]
