U.S. state.89 WSPA members include BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Occidental Petroleum. The slides reveal that WSPA organized 16 “AstroTurf” organizations – organizations with innocuous and grassroots-sounding names – to deploy industry messaging against proposed regulation but in the guise of grassroots support.90 While oil companies have been among the largest and most consistent funders of climate denial and misinformation efforts, they have not been alone. In 1991, for example, the coal trade associations created the Information Council on the Environment, which orchestrated a national campaign publicly downplaying the risks of climate change.91 They were also a part of the Global Climate Coalition, discussed above.92 Bankruptcy filings from three of the largest coal companies – Arch Coal, Alpha Natural resources, and Peabody Energy – demonstrate that even after GCC was closed, these coal companies continued funding a network of “denier groups,” including the Heartland Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute, and the Free Market Environmental law Clinic.93 In 2009, as the United States Congress was debating legislation designed to dramatically reduce greenhouse emissions nationwide, an alliance representing coal industry groups sent forged letters to members of Congress that falsely suggested several civil society groups opposed the legislation.94 Most recently, the largest companies have adjusted their strategies from outright denial that climate change is happening to questioning the human contribution to climate change, the timing and severity of impacts, and economic feasibility of reducing emissions. In 2014, ExxonMobil released a report entitled “Energy and Climate” which “provide[s] comments on the topics of global energy and climate change.”95 In its discussion, ExxonMobil describes itself as believing “that changes to the earth’s climate, including those that may result from anthropogenic causes, pose a risk.”96 Moreover, as recently as January 2017, Rex Tillerson, who served as CEO of ExxonMobil until being nominated as U.S. Secretary of State by Donald Trump, downplayed the risks of climate change during his confirmation hearing. “The increase in the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are having an effect, our ability to predict that effect is very limited.”97 89 Id. at 39. Id. 91 See Id. at 19. 92 See id.at 25. 93 See Suzanne Goldenberg & Helena Bengtsson, Biggest US Coal Company Funded Dozens of Groups Questioning Climate Change, THE GUARDIAN (Jun. 13, 2016, 6:00 AM), https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climate-change-denialfunding; Nick Surgey, Bankruptcy Filing Shows Arch Coal Funding for Climate Denial Legal Group, PRWATCH (Feb. 24, 2016, 8:33 AM), http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/02/13049/bankruptcy-documents-indicate-arch-coalfunding-climate-denial-legal-group; Coal Companies’ Secret Funding of Climate Science Denial Exposed, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS (Apr. 2016), http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/got-science/2016/got-science-april2016#.WJpclX8plVg. 94 MULVEY & SHULMAN, supra note 77, at 16-18. 95 ExxonMobil, Energy and Climate (2014), available at http://cdn.exxonmobil.com/~/media/global/files/energyand-environment/report---energy-and-climate.pdf. 96 Id. (emphasis added). 97 See Dana Nuccitelli, New Studies Show Rex Tillerson is Wrong About Climate Risks, THE GUARDIAN (Jan. 16, 2017), https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/jan/16/new-studies-showrex-tillerson-is-wrong-about-climate-risks. 90 15