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A friend just alerted me to the website PlantsNeedCO2.org, which is running ads on NYTimes.com. From the site’s “about us” page:

Our mission is to educate the public on the positive effects of additional atmospheric CO2 and help prevent the inadvertent negative impact to human, plant and animal life if we reduce CO2. Plants Need CO2 is a 501 (c)(3) non profit corporation.

How do I say this? False.

I know you’re never gonna believe who really owns the website … Big Oil.

It’s registered to Quintana Minerals Corporation:

Quintana Minerals Corporation provides oil and gas exploration services to the energy sector. The company also offers crude oil and natural gas production services. Quintana Minerals Corporation was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

The site’s “spokesman,” H. Leighton Steward, is actually an honorary director at the American Petroleum Institute. He’s also a director at EOG Resources, an oil and gas company, a position in which he earned a whopping $617,151 last year. Steward is formerly head of Burlington Resources, now a part of ConocoPhillips) and former Chairman of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association and the Natural Gas Supply Association. Not a word about any of that in his bio on the site.

Yet more lies by Big Oil in an effort to protect their record profits by derailing clean energy legislation. If you’ve witnessed any other fraud by Big Oil, email the new Polluter Fraud Citizens Tipline at tips@polluterfraud.com.