Fossil fuel companies using ESG reporting to greenwash their brands in Facebook ads
Meanwhile, right-wing pundits decry the investing tactic altogether
In May, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that pushes the Securities and Exchange Commission to make companies better disclose environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks. We found that some polluters have responded to this development by running Facebook ads promoting their “strong ESG performance”, while right-wing media outlets have labeled the move “authoritarian.”
We’ve identified at least three fossil companies that have been using Facebook ads to make their brands seem amenable to ESG disclosures: Williams Companies, Exelon, and ConocoPhillips, which together have spent $92,072 in the past 90 days on greenwashing Facebook ads.
Of these three companies, Williams Companies is by far the biggest investor in Facebook ads, having spent $74,688 there in the past 90 days. In late July, they ran a campaign mostly targeting young adults in Texas, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Some ads claimed that “Williams is leading the industry with commitments to ESG and investments in technology to accelerate our journey to net zero,” while others in the same campaign touted natural gas: “Williams is leading the industry with commitments to ESG and investments in technology to accelerate our journey to net zero.”
Exelon and ConocoPhillips have invested less heavily on Facebook ads in recent months, spending $13,925 and $3,495 respectively in the past 90 days, but they follow similar tactics as Williams. Exelon’s greenwashing ads target men in Illinois and tout their ESG commitment alongside their DEI “core value”, while ConocoPhillips’ ads (under a page called “Power in Cooperation”) tie their “commitment to ESG excellence” to their “Paris-aligned Climate Risk Framework” above a picture of a fracking rig.
We have also found one group that has used Facebook ads to explicitly argue against ESG disclosures: the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank that is in part funded by Charles Koch. They spent at least $300 on a Facebook ad targeting young adults in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana, that claims that “Energy Investing Will Hurt in the Long Run.” They also run anti-clean energy ads through a page called “Life: Powered,” which is a bit more extreme in its rhetoric. Last month, they ran an ad that called ESG investing “Criminal Collusion on Wall Street,” linking to a reposted story from The Epoch Times.
When it comes to organic social content on Facebook, we found that right-wing commentator Glenn Beck has been creating the most-engaged content about ESG in recent months. In “interviews” with Ben Shapiro and Fox News contributor Justin Haskins, Beck puts the investing and reporting tactic in stark terms, going so far as to equate it to the Jan. 6 insurrectionist attack on the Capitol.