An analysis of the nine top players in the U.S. fossil fuel-derived hydrocarbon industries (oil/gas, plastics, and agrichemicals) shows tight linkages across the three different sectors, with news media, other petrochemical industry players, and politicians also frequently tagged, according to a study published January 15, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Alaina Kinol from Northeastern University, United States, and colleagues.
Previous research on connections between the fossil fuel and plastics sectors and fossil fuel and agriculture sectors has revealed strategy lobbying coordination to resist government regulation in the United States. Here, Kinol and colleagues examine how nine key players in the US fossil energy/plastics/agrichemical industries used X/Twitter (henceforth referred to as "Twitter," the name of the platform for the period this research covers) to interact.
The authors analysed over 125,300 unique tweets posted from 2008-2023 by the main Twitter accounts of nine key players in the US fossil energy/plastics/agrichemical trade: the top two largest U.S. fossil fuel oil/gas companies and their national trade association (ExxonMobil, Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute), the top two largest plastics producers and their national trade association (Dow, Dupont de Nemours, Inc, and the American Chemistry Council), and the top two largest agrichemical producers and their national trade association (Corteva Agriscience, FMC Corp, and the American Farm Bureau). The assessment examined themes, connections, and relationships among these nine central Twitter accounts.
The organizations posted 47 percent of the assessed tweets; plastics, 35 percent; and agribusiness, 18 percent. All nine of the organizations of interest in this study were mentioned by at least four other organizations of interest, reflecting substantial connections between the three sectors. The strongest inter-sector connections were between fossil fuel and plastics organizations. In terms of other types of Twitter accounts mentioned, news media accounts were most frequently tagged (112 unique handles), followed by other organizations dealing with hydrocarbons/petrochemicals (63 handles) and politicians (43). The top five phrases mentioned were "economy" (3,140 tweets), "sustainable/sustainability" (3,012), "pipeline" (2,862), "water" (2,350), and "EPA" (591).
The findings suggest more investigation is warranted into how these organizations may use social media to amplify one another's messages and shape public discourse around their industries and the climate crisis.
Co-author Jennie C Stephens summarizes: "Our study suggests that climate obstruction in different industries is more coordinated than is generally recognized...these different companies in different sectors are using the same strategic messaging to promote a distorted image of their environmental responsibility."
