According to a recent investigation, Australian fossil fuel firms and their trade associations have been exchanging notes with their overseas counterparts in an effort to prevent a phaseout of gas in houses.
In an effort to reverse engineer the tactics employed by industry to thwart new policy proposals, the UK-based climate think tank InfluenceMap looked at industry campaigns in at least three different nations.
A strategy to lessen the state's dependency on gas and stop gas connections in new homes has made the Victorian state government a favorite target of fossil fuel producers and their trade associations.
Dr Kate Wylie, Executive Director of Doctors for the Environment Australia compared efforts by oil and gas producers to fight a managed phaseout to earlier by the tobacco industry, saying the report highlighted the extent to which companies were unconcerned about the potential for harm.
“What we fundamentally know is that coal, oil and gas, over the course of its lifecycle from exploration and the point of extraction, to use, combustion and waste, is hazardous to human health, every step of the way.”