Anadarko spends big on good neighbor advertisements while skimping on actual safety measures
In recent years it’s been virtually impossible for Coloradans to miss advertisements on the television, radio, and in newspapers touting the oil and gas industry’s commitment to safety and environmental responsibility. One company in particular, Anadarko Petroleum, has led the charge to frame the oil and gas industry as a good neighbor while defeating proposed safety measures. A review of Anadarko’s recent spending sheds light on how the oil and gas giant spent heavily on advertising, lobbying, and political races, while shirking inspections and safety checks on old wells, like the one linked to a fatal home explosion in Firestone, Colorado.
In 2013, as tensions mounted amid a dramatic increase in drilling across Colorado, Anadarko Petroleum and Noble Energy created Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development, better known as CRED. The organization’s stated mission is “to educate the public on safe, environmentally responsible energy development practices of the oil and natural gas industry in Colorado.” In practice, the group was designed to be a public relations firm for the industry, beating back bills and ballot measures aimed at increasing safeguards on drilling practices.
For the first four years of CRED’s existence, the only years for which tax records are available, the group received more than $38 million in funding, primarily from Anadarko and Noble.
In recent interviews, Anadarko’s former head of government relations in Colorado and a co-creator of CRED, Chris Castilian, has pulled back the curtain on why the industry invested so heavily in the group.
“[Anadarko] spent a lot of time and energy and money and reputations of people like me purchasing a social license to operate in Colorado. That social license helped us to beat ballot measures, defeat issues in the legislature, win support from people and communities throughout Colorado.”
— Chris Castilian, Colorado Independent
Put another way, those millions spent on advertisements were intended for one purpose: to persuade Coloradans to believe that the oil and gas industry is a good neighbor that can be trusted to safely drill near communities. However, a whistleblower lawsuit paints a different picture. In it, former Anadarko employees depict a company prioritizing profits above safety.