Contribution short abstract

In this paper, we use internal documents to compare BP's internal research on biofuels with the company’s public advocacy on biofuels. We find that since at least 2016, BP was informed of the failures of the company’s biofuels research and warned about the technology’s limited scalability.

Contribution long abstract

In 2022 and 2024, as part of a multi-year investigation into the fossil fuel industry’s “role in spreading climate disinformation and preventing action on climate change”, the United States House Senate Budget Committee and the House Oversight Committee released over 4,500 internal documents from fossil fuel companies. This is the first academic study based on these documents.

In this paper, we use these documents to compare fossil fuel company BP's internal research and commentary on biofuels with the company’s public advocacy on biofuels. We find that since at least 2016, top executives at BP have been informed of the failures of the company’s biofuels research, warned about the technology’s limited scalability, and notified of biofuels’ limited viability as a climate solution compared to wind and solar energy. Rather than wind down public advocacy, however, BP instead continued to promote biofuels through consumer-facing advertisements, release misleading statements about the scalability of biofuels in annual reports, and lobby for the expansion of biofuels to various governments. These misleading promotions of biofuels from BP continue today.