How agricultural interests are teaming up with big oil to take advantage of tax credits meant to fight climate change—and what the backlash can tell us about the future of climate politics.
Molly Taft
Molly Taft (they/she) is a freelance journalist. They recently served as a contributing editor on the climate vertical at the New Republic, and were a staff writer reporting on climate, tech, and Big Oil at Gizmodo's Earther blog. Their work has also appeared in outlets including the Center for Public Integrity, The Intercept, Buzzfeed, VICE, and Teen Vogue. They won a 2023 SEAL Environmental Award for their work at Earther, and they earned a master's in journalism from Columbia University, where they were a Stabile investigative fellow. They are based out of New York.
Posted inAcademia, Advertising and PR
Fossil Fuels Fund Academia. Now What?
Despite decades of donations and research footed by the industry, we’re just now beginning to understand how much fossil fuel money has shaped academia.
Posted inAcademia
[Podcast] New Research Is Clear: Fossil Fuel-Funded University Research Is Warping Policy
Geoffrey Supran and Craig Callender discuss the link between fossil fuel-funded research in schools and policy.
Posted inAcademia, Drilled
Denial to Delay: How Fossil-Funded University Research Lays the Foundation for Fossil-Friendly Policy
Molly Taft talks us through newly released reports on fossil fuel funding of university research, and share interviews with climate disinformation researcher Geoffrey Supran, who authored one of the recent studies, and with philosopher of science Craig Callender at UCSD, which just passed a precedent-setting policy to require disclosure of funding on research.
Posted inAdvertising and PR, Essays
How Oil Companies Manipulate Journalists
Subpoenaed emails reveal the ways fossil-fuel corporations try to influence the media—and why they often succeed.
Posted inAcademia, Advertising and PR
How the Oil and Gas Industry Smuggles Corporate Propaganda into Schools
STEM lesson plans from Discovery Education provide an efficient model for fossil fuel companies to indoctrinate children
Posted inAcademia, Lobbying
Research or Lobbying? New Documents Reveal What Fossil Fuel Companies Are Really Paying for at Top Universities
A new batch of subpoenaed documents show what fossil fuel companies are getting for their university research donations.
Posted inFossil Fuel Industry
A startup promises to ‘advance the energy transition.’ It’s run by Shell.
A reboot of its previous venture “Studio X,” Shell’s new endeavor Onward is just greenwashing by another name.
Posted inTech Industry
I Saw the Future of Climate Technology—And Its Big-Oil Investors
At the Cleantech North America conference, the fates of climate-tech startups are tangled into the balance sheets of companies who caused the crisis in the first place.
Posted inAdvertising and PR, International climate negotiations
The COP That PR Firms Built
This year’s climate meeting meant millions of dollars in revenues for PR firms—and plenty of new contracts and connections to help petrostates continue to paint their green image beyond Dubai.