New News on Who Knew
Utilities ignored dangers of climate change for decades

Exxon knew. Shell knew. And now, a new report reveals that US electric utilities were warned of the dangers of climate change as early as 1968 but continued to invest heavily in fossil fuels and worked to cast doubt on climate science.

The mammoth 66-page report from the Energy and Policy Institute lays out a troubling timeline. In 1971, more than 50 utilities contributed to long-term research and development goals that included studying the “effects of CO2.” For the next two decades, the industry invested in “cutting edge climate research” and by 1988 acknowledged the “growing consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is real.” The same year, Edison Electric Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute released a report on “the potential effects of climate change on electric utilities,” which concludes that “climate changes possible over the next 30 years may significantly affect the electric utility industry.”
But, just like the fossil fuel industry, utilities were more concerned with their business’ bottom line than the fate of the planet. They joined the climate-denying Global Climate Coalition in 1989 and lobbied against the Kyoto Protocol and other government policies focused on climate action. (The group disbanded in 2001 after Bush withdrew from Kyoto.)
Now, decades later, some utilities are still fighting climate action and perpetuating denial. In March, utility giant Southern Company’s CEO said on CNBC that carbon dioxide is not the main driver of climate change, instead peddling the “the climate has always changed” trope favored by deniers. (Side note: this is the same program on which both Scott Pruitt and Rick Perry spouted this same line. Coincidence? We think not.)
First Exxon, then Shell, now the utilities. Who will be next? After all, if one’s an incident, two’s a coincidence, and three’s a pattern…
Bridgette Burkholder writes for I Heart Climate Scientists. You can follow her at @bridgette_ck.
