The Petroleum Industry was Unequivocally Warned of Climate Change Due Primarily to the Combustion of Fossil Fuels By 1968 In 1968, a report from the Stanford Research Institute called “Sources, Abundance, and Fate of Gaseous Atmospheric Pollutants” was delivered to W. A. Burhouse,46 Assistant Director of the Committee for Air and Water Conservation.47 The report addressed six pollutants, including carbon dioxide.48 It cautioned that rising levels of CO2 would likely result in rising global temperatures and that, if temperatures increased significantly, the result could be melting ice caps, rising sea levels, warming oceans, and serious environmental damage on a global scale.49 Scientists acknowledged that burning fossil fuels provided the best explanation for rising CO2. They further recognized that existing science was “detailed” and seemed “to explain adequately the present state of CO2 in the atmosphere.”50 The 1968 report from SRI did not state definitively that there was a scientific consensus on questions of climate, but concluded “[s]ignificant temperature changes are almost certain to occur by the year 2000 and these could bring about climatic changes.”51 Robinson and Robbins cautioned that these increased temperatures could result in melting ice caps, rising sea levels, warming oceans, and environmental damage on a global scale.52 Moreover, they acknowledged that fossil fuel combustion provided the best explanation for rising carbon dioxide levels, and recognized that existing science was “detailed” and seemed “to explain adequately the present state of CO2 in the atmosphere.”53 We know that industry scientists were aware, or should have been aware, of this report for two reasons. First, an internal API document titled “Environmental Research, A Status Report,” published in January 1972, outlines all of the research funded by the CAWC up to that point in 1972. The status report acknowledges both the original 1968 SRI report and the 1969 supplemental report, including explicit references to the discussions of carbon dioxide contained therein.54 Second, the National Petroleum Council (NPC) submitted a report to the Department of Energy in 1972 entitled “Environmental Conservation.” The NPC is an advisory body, populated and funded by the petroleum industry, which advises the federal government on questions that concern the industry. In its submission, the NPC acknowledges Robinson & Robbins’ report, describing it as a “careful study” by “eminent scientists” and as an authoritative source on atmospheric pollution.55 46 See ELMER ROBINSON & R. C. ROBBINS, SOURCES, ABUNDANCE, AND FATE OF GASEOUS ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTANTS: FINAL REPORT AND SUPPLEMENT (1968), available at https://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/6852325. 47 See H. H. Meredith, Platitudes or Performance?, 16 J. OF THE AIR POLLUTION CONTROL ASS’N 547, 549 (1966), available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00022470.1966.10468517?needAccess=true. 48 See ROBINSON & ROBBINS, supra note 46. 49 Id. at 108. 50 Id. at 112. 51 See id. at 109. 52 Id. 53 Id. at 112. 54 See Environmental Research: A Status Report 103 (Jan. 1972) (staff paper prepared for the American Petroleum Institute), available at http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED066339.pdf. 55 See ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION: THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRIES / VOLUME 2, NATIONAL PETROLEUM COUNCIL 7 (1972), available at http://www.npc.org/reports/1972-Environmental_ConservationOil_and_Gas_Industries-Vol_II.pdf. 9