Hey, Drill listeners, we're back.

I took a long break there to work on reporting the next season and because pandemic parenting

makes work hard. This month we'll be releasing a few bonus episodes and next month we'll

get into our next narrative season and it's a long history of the gas industry including

the fracking boom, how that fed into a plastics boom and the many crazy tactics the industry

has used and continues to use to paint itself as a clean energy solution. Make sure you're

subscribed so you don't miss that. Also a quick update on last season, the second circuit

court of appeals in New York just ruled in Stephen Donziger's favor on at least some

of the civil contempt charges he was facing. If you don't have any idea what I'm talking

about, go back and listen to season five all about the long Chevron Ecuador case it's

been going on for more than 30 years. Donziger is still going to trial on criminal contempt

charges and we'll have a longer update on all of that for you soon but this is a small

win for him. Today we're talking to Stanford researcher Ben Fronta you might remember

from season one, Fronta studies the history of science and we spoke with him last time

about how much oil money is funding climate research centers at university campuses all

over the country. Today I invited him on to share a really big recent discovery that I

don't think has gotten nearly enough attention about how early the American petroleum institute

knew about climate change and importantly started messaging against climate action. That

started happening in 1980 according to some new stuff that Fronta has dug up. That's

way earlier than people previously thought. The American petroleum institute is of course

the trade group for the oil and gas industry. It's been around for more than 100 years

and was the brainchild of one of our madmen from season three. Ivy led better Lee, the

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