FRONTLINE: The Power of Big Oil

Bold and illuminating, this three-part investigative documentary reveals how the fossil fuel industry over four decades manipulated climate change research, influenced environmental policy,and undermined efforts to confront the threat and impact of global warming. The series explores in forensic detail how the greatest existential crisis of our time has long been on the radar of big oil companies, which chose to bury damning research, exploit climate-change denialism, and derail transitions from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources. The Power of Big Oil draws on more than a year of reporting, reams of newly uncovered documents, and more than 100 interviews with key figures, including scientists employed inside and outside the industry. Politicians, executives, researchers, and lobbyists admit to spinning alternative narratives and obstructing actions to mitigate climate change, lamenting for the first time—at least in public—the missed opportunities to address an impending catastrophe. For providing an invaluable public service in examining the efforts to stall science and climate policy and for holding accountable an industry that placed profit over the planet, we recognize The Power of Big Oil as a Peabody winner.