Oil lobby resorts to fake Twitter posts to promote Keystone XL pipeline

Someone working in or for the oil industry appears to be resorting to astroturfing to bolster support for the controversial proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Alberta down to Texas if approved by the Obama administration.

The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) thinks the American Petroleum Institute and its oil lobby allies are behind a slew of fake Twitter accounts designed to give the impression that public opinion is for the pipeline.

The proposal has raised concerns among environmentalists, farmers, ranchers, and landowners, however. Many tweeps following the debate have been using the hash tag "#tarsands" to discuss the pipeline.

On Aug. 3, RAN noticed a group of Twitter handles posting the same tweet, "#tarsands the truth is out!" followed by a link to the American Petroleum Institute Web page about the tar sands. Then those accounts sent out another link, this time to the Nebraska Energy Forum, a state-based group sponsored by API that has also been heavily involved in promoting tar sands development.

RAN's Brant Olson has compiled a list of the apparently fake handles.

Take, for example, droidude7816, j"a regular old Star Wars fan from Chicago who's in a intimate relationship with his girlfriend Sarah." His short self-description also notes, "I own pretty much every starwar movie, action figure etc.," and "I'm also one who cares about the environment." It even has a little photo of a guy having a light-saber fight with Darth Vader! But all of his 27 tweets are about Keystone XL.

There's also SarahMama2, who claims to be just your average mother of a toddler who happens to tweet compulsively about the pipeline. And there's JennyJohnson10, "a single woman that works full time at a fitness center" and has "2 cats 1 dog and 1 snake" but only tweets about the tar sands. Or her Twitter friend kyleland1, who claims to be a Pizza Hut manager from Omaha who believes that "if you like pizza you should also like #keystonexl and the sweet #oilsands it benefits #nebraska." (Source: Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones, Aug. 4, 2011)

Oil industry launches ad campaign to tout Keystone XL approval

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The American Petroleum Institute is launching a new advertising and media campaign designed to boost support for domestic oil production and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would deliver Canadian tar sands crude to Gulf Coast refineries.

The campaign, dubbed "Keys to the Future," is the latest bid by the oil industry’s largest U.S. trade group to advance the controversial pipeline project, which is currently under State Department review.

Ads are already running in inside-the-Beltway publications distributed on Capitol Hill. Online and print advertising also will appear in nine key states: Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

API President Jack Gerard told reporters that the "campaign will help policy makers and the public understand the oil and natural gas industry is a major and constructive force in rebuilding our economy and that it stands ready to do much more."

The advertising push is focusing first on energy security. API is touting its blueprint for weaning the U.S. off oil imported from countries outside North America. Under the analysis, the U.S. could get 92 percent of its liquid energy needs domestically and from Canada by 2030 - compared to 62 percent today.

But that forecast assumes the U.S. approves the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oilsands crude from Alberta to southeast Texas. It also is contingent on a jump in biofuels production, from eight percent today to 14 percent in 2030.

API’s prediction also is wedded to boosted domestic oil and gas production both on and offshore - including in areas such as along the Pacific Coast where there is strong resistance to offshore drilling.

API has been lobbying Congress and the administration for increased access to domestic oil and gas reserves and approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

"It’s taken policymakers far too long to take these constructive steps to generate jobs and generate revenues to the federal government," Gerard said.

Critics argue that there's no guarantee that boosted domestic oil and gas drilling - or even imported products from Canada - would remain in the U.S., especially given that the U.S. was a net exporter of petroleum products in February and March, even as gas prices soared.