Over three nights, the series shows how fossil fuel companies and their political allies cast doubt and helped delay action on climate change for decades

The Power of Big Oil
April 19, April 26 & May 3, 2022
Airing at 10/9c on PBS & on YouTube
Streaming at 7/6c at pbs.org/frontline & in the PBS Video App
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This Earth Month, FRONTLINE (PBS) will present The Power of Big Oil — an epic three-part documentary series investigating the decades-long failure to confront the threat and increasing impacts of climate change, and the role of the fossil fuel industry and one of its biggest players, ExxonMobil.

From a team of award-winning filmmakers and journalists, including Dan Edge, Jane McMullen, Gesbeen Mohammad, Robin Barnwell, Sara Obeidat, Emma Supple and Russell Gold, The Power of Big Oil offers a deeply researched investigation of what scientists, corporations and politicians have known about human-caused climate change for decades, and the missed opportunities to mitigate the problem.

The docuseries spans more than 40 years and multiple presidential administrations, drawing on newly uncovered documents and more than 100 interviews with key players, including scientists who worked inside and outside the industry, politicians, executives, and lobbyists — some speaking for the first time who express regret.

“I had misgivings about just telling half the story. … I wish I weren’t a part of that, looking back. I wish I weren’t a part of, of delaying action. You know, clearly on the wrong side of history,” says Paul Bernstein, former economic consultant for Charles River Associates, a firm that worked for the American Petroleum Institute.

The Power of Big Oil charts when the fossil fuel industry began researching climate change and its potentially catastrophic effects, and, as demand for and dependence on oil increased, investigates the lengths the industry went to cast doubt on the science, influence public perception, and block action from the 1980s to the present day. 

“I’m 83 years old. Three or four decades ago, we predicted it,” says Martin Hoffert, a former NASA physicist who worked as a consultant for Exxon in the 1980s. “To have those predictions come true, that’s sort of the golden icon that you look for as a scientist. However, as a human being, and as an inhabitant of planet Earth, I’m horrified to watch the lack of response to this.”

Even as the evidence grew more certain about climate change in the new millennium, The Power of Big Oil examines the industry’s efforts to stall climate policy.

“The industry is a great lobbyist,” says former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman. “There was obviously no appetite for any mention of climate change. That was it. I mean, you just didn’t talk about it. And I just had had enough.”

ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies defended their records. “​​We have continued to maintain a position that has evolved with science and is today consistent with the science,” said Darren Woods, chair and CEO of ExxonMobil, in an October 2021 congressional hearing.  

“What we now know about some of these large oil companies’ positions, and what they did know and they didn’t tell us or they didn’t recognize, they lied. And yes, I was misled,” says former U.S. senator and secretary of defense Chuck Hagel. “It would have put the United States and the world on a whole different track. And today we would have been so much further ahead than we are. It’s cost this country, and it cost the world.”

As the world’s leading climate scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issue new warnings about the dangers of climate change, and as the war on Ukraine highlights the world’s dependence on fossil fuels and Russia’s status as a top oil exporter, The Power of Big Oil examines the ongoing efforts to hold the industry accountable. It is an urgent and essential documentary series to help understand how we got here.  

The Power of Big Oil will premiere Tuesdays, April 19, April 26 and May 3, 2022, at 10/9c on PBS stations (check local listings). Each episode of the series will also be available to stream at pbs.org/frontline, in the PBS Video App and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel. The Power of Big Oil is distributed internationally by PBS International.

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Credits
The Power of Big Oil is a FRONTLINE Production with Mongoose Pictures in association with BBC and Arte. The series producer is Dan Edge. The producer and director of episode 1 is Jane McMullen. The producer and director of episode 2 is Gesbeen Mohammad. The producer and director of episode 3 is Robin Barnwell. The editorial consultant is Russell Gold. The senior producers are James Jacoby and Eamonn Matthews. The executive producer for FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

About FRONTLINE
FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 100 Emmy Awards and 26 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Park Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. Funding for The Power of Big Oil is provided by The WNET Group’s Peril and Promise initiative, reporting on the human stories of climate change, with major funding by Dr. P. Roy and Diana T. Vagelos and additional funding from The Marc Haas Foundation, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, and the Cheryl and Philip Milstein family. Additional support for this program is provided by The JPB Foundation, and the GBH Planet Future Fund.
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Press Contact: Anne Husted, FRONTLINE Manager, Public Relations and Communications | 617-300-5312 | frontlinemedia@wgbh.org