Sludge: Journalism to follow the oil money

It would be hard to overstate the fossil fuel industry’s influence over politics. Influence Map published a report last month that pointed out, “The five largest publicly traded oil and gas majors (ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total) have invested over $1 billion of shareholder funds in the three years following the Paris Agreement on misleading climate-related branding and lobbying.” The same five companies have contributed over $16 million to the most powerful oil and gas trade groups.

Today, I donated to Sludge, a reader-funded investigative journalism project exposing fossil fuel lobbying. They intend to follow the money and report on how politicians are funded and how lobbyists push corporate agendas. Because more transparency is desperately needed.