What is the Polluter industrial complex?


No climate criminal works alone. 

These climate criminals are operating in the polluter industrial complex (PIC). The PIC is a vast and highly sophisticated web of corporate power comprised of ecologically destructive American business sectors. Organizations in the PIC have a vested interest in delaying action on climate change. Their hands are bound – either directly or indirectly – by the fossil fuel companies whose operations continue to release the greenhouse gases that are disrupting the climate. 

The core of the PIC is made up of industry trade associations, anti-environmental think tanks and policy institutes, public relations firms, astroturf organizations, corporate lobbying groups, and foundations. These organizations are funded by the fossil fuel industry, corporate and conservative family foundations, and dark money sources. The conservative climate change denial machine is one of the most well-funded propaganda campaigns in history. 

The PIC wields power over the state by backing business-friendly politicians; appointing industry-friendly officials to lead environmental and energy positions in key agencies; promoting anti-environmental policies that are favorable to the fossil fuel and related industries; and intentionally sowing seeds of doubt about the reality or severity of climate change.  

Sectors of the polluter industrial complex

  • Energy companies extract, refine, and supply fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. Pipeline companies operate the infrastructure that transports these fossil fuels. Their fortunes rely on the world’s continued dependence on their products.

    These companies make ambitious climate pledges while expanding their operations; they lie before Congress about the history of their companies’ knowledge of climate change; they get to participate in COPs; they lobby against climate policies; and they work with public relations firms to greenwash their public images. They continue to evade responsibility for the decades of harm their companies have caused – and they try to pass off the blame for the climate crisis onto consumers.

    The CEOs of these companies – people like Darren Woods of ExxonMobil, Mike Wirth of Chevron, Ryan Lance of ConocoPhillips, Kelcy Warren of Energy Transfer, and Thomas Karam of Equitrans – are desperate to stay rich and relevant, and they are making conscious choices every day to maintain the energy status quo. These are the leaders of the companies planning and executing recent drilling and pipeline projects – like the Willow Project in Alaska and the Mountain Valley Pipeline – that are completely antithetical to climate justice and mitigation goals.

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  • Think tanks are research organizations that seek to shape public opinion and influence policymaking. They function as knowledge hubs and idea incubators, often with a specific ideological angle. They host conferences, publish articles and op-eds, speak on media outlets, model legislation, and generally work to disseminate their ideology. The anti-climate policy conservative think tanks are privately funded, mostly by philanthropic and industry organizations that support – or directly benefit from – a think tank’s agenda.

    A think tank network is a coalition of think tanks with shared ideology. Two of the most prominent libertarian think tank networks are the State Policy Network in the United States, and the global Atlas Network. These networks have immense power in numbers to work toward their long-term policy goals; this power is known but hard to completely grasp because network membership is often kept a secret. In the words of George Monbiot for The Guardian in early 2024, “These junktanks are like the spike proteins on a virus. They are the means by which plutocratic power invades the cells of public life and takes over. It’s time we developed an immune system.”

    Those in charge of the most powerful think tanks and think tank networks are working to prevent climate action and to spread misinformation about the climate crisis, including Kevin D. Roberts of the Heritage Foundation, and James M. Taylor of the Heartland Institute.

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  • Banks are largely responsible for financing the fossil fuel industry. In fact, the world’s 60 largest banks provided $5.5 trillion in fossil fuel financing in the seven years after the Paris Agreement. JPMorgan Chase (run by Jamie Dimon), Citigroup (Jane Fraser), and Bank of America (Brian Moynihan) are among the worst offenders of financing fossil fuel projects. At the same time that they bankroll dirty projects, many banks make net zero emissions goals and other empty ESG commitments.

    Right-wing and libertarian family foundations are central to the web of climate denial and delay. Over generations, they have consistently funded think tanks, research institutes, and trade groups that spread disinformation and lobby against climate action. Top recipients include notorious organizations such as the Heartland Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council, Americans for Prosperity, The American Enterprise Institute, and the State Policy Network. Donors who funnel their money through donor-advised funds like Donors Trust can remain anonymous, impervious to accountability for their part in bankrolling the climate crisis.

    These foundations might not have an explicit vested interest in the fossil fuel industry, but they are fundamentally anti-government, which includes federal climate regulation. They have significant crossover in their board leadership and their recipients, with frequent links to the Koch brothers and think tank networks like the State Policy Network. The opacity and vastness of these funds make it harder to pinpoint a concrete entity to call out, but in this section we have profiled the leaders of some key foundations: Lawson Bader of DonorsTrust (and the related Donors Capital Fund), Kimberly Dennis of the Searle Freedom Trust, Michael Gleba of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and Richard Graber of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

    Private equity and investment firms make up ultra-wealthy sectors that are heavily invested in fossil fuel industry projects, including fracking operations, oil pipelines, coal plants, and offshore drilling. These firms are hyper-focused on maximizing profits above all else. The tycoons at the helm of these companies are often on the boards of (or major donors to) important cultural institutions – like museums and universities – providing them with respectable and valuable public images to cover up the fact that their businesses are pouring money into destructive projects.

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  • The fossil fuel industry’s reputation has been under fire in recent years; the public’s understanding of the industry’s lead role in the climate crisis has only been growing, so the industry has had to put in extra effort to maintain its stronghold on society. Fossil fuel companies rely on public relations firms to finesse (read: distort) their reputations. To successfully advertise the fossil fuel industry, PR firms “go far beyond typical marketing techniques,” according to the House Natural Resources Committee.

    Their tactics include greenwashing companies’ public image; mobilizing third-party organizations (many of which are funded by the fossil fuel industry) to manufacture a sense of widespread support; and delegitimizing the industry’s opposition. Ad campaigns are carefully crafted and focus-group tested, relying on tactics like extolling the American virtues of job creation and energy independence; they often don’t mention climate change at all.

    The 2022 IPCC report directly called out the role of PR firms and communications in the climate conversation, stating “the media shapes the public discourse about climate mitigation,” and public discourse in turn influences policy making. The leaders of the PR firms with fossil fuel contracts are directly responsible for shaping fossil fuel companies’ public images to maintain their power.

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  • Trade associations – also called trade groups – are coalitions of member organizations with similar goals and strength in numbers. They represent their members, fund public relations campaigns, lobby, funnel money to think tanks, and engage in other activities that advance their agendas. Oil and gas industry trade groups spent much more than other industry groups between 2008 and 2018 – $1.3 billion.

    A few key fossil fuel industry trade groups are the American Petroleum Institute (API), led by Mike Sommers; the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), led by Chet Thompson; and America’s Power, led by Michelle Bloodworth.

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    • Following the Money: Trade Associations, Political Activity and Climate Change (Springer)

  • Insurance companies are complicit in the climate crisis by underwriting, investing in, and profiting from the fossil fuel industry. Fossil fuel projects require insurance to operate, so the insurance companies that are continuing to underwrite them are actively contributing to the climate crisis. Insurance companies have a vested interest in insuring these projects, because many of them are heavily invested in the fossil fuel industry.

    Not only that, but many insurance and energy companies have overlapping board members – for example, Joseph Hooley is both a board member of Liberty Mutual and a Lead Director at ExxonMobil. The same insurance companies that are supporting increased fossil fuel production – including giants State Farm, Berkshire Hathaway, Liberty Mutual, AIG, among others – are withdrawing insurance coverage in areas that are becoming more prone to climate-related natural disasters.

    There is discordance between insurance companies' actions and their messaging that touts a climate-friendly public image. The leaders of these insurance companies are making conscious choices every year to continue insuring and investing in fossil fuel projects.

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  • Lawyers and law firms play multiple roles in the extraction and sale of fossil fuels, as well as ensuring our continued dependence on them. In terms of litigation, lawyers working for fossil fuel companies can work to undermine environmental regulations, defend companies against paying for climate-related damages, and push new fossil fuel projects through when they are legally challenged by environmental groups.

    Lawyers also assist with fossil fuel transactions – they write contracts for fossil fuel projects, arrange project financing, and manage mergers and acquisitions that enable fossil fuel extraction. Lawyers also often serve as lobbyists for fossil fuel companies and industry groups, pushing for legislation that allows the expansion of fossil fuel production and the minimization of accountability for fossil fuel companies.

    Because of how expensive law schools are, law students are also discouraged from careers in public interest law because they tend to be much less lucrative positions than those at corporate law firms – the ones that sometimes work for fossil fuel companies. Entry level law associates are often pushed into fossil fuel work, and then are faced with the choice of continuing to support fossil fuel interest or remaining in student debt.

    What’s more, top law schools are riddled with Koch dollars – between 2017 and 2020, the Charles Koch Foundation donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to top law schools including Stanford Law School, NYU School of Law, Harvard Law School, and others.

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  • Railroads have played an integral role in the fight against climate action and are major promoters of climate denialism. This is because railroads profit handsomely from fossil fuels – in 2018, larger railroad companies earned a combined $10.7 billion in the transportation of fossil fuels, primarily coal. To protect these revenue streams, railroads donate to pro-coal industry groups like America’s Power to lobby against regulation. Railroads also donate heavily to trade groups that are known for spreading climate denialism and working to block climate legislation, like the National Association of Manufacturers. Railroads are also major contributors to carbon pollution – in 2018, railroads facilitated 16.5 percent of all US carbon pollution.

    The four largest American freight railroads – the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway (led by Kathryn Farmer), Union Pacific (led by Jim Vena), Norfolk Southern (led by Alan Howard Shaw), and CSX (led by Joe Hinrichs) – must be held accountable for their role in blocking climate policy.

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