January 21, 2015

Refinery Lobbyist Invokes WW2-Era Quote, Calls Businesses That Donate to Environmentalists ‘Appeasers’

Charles Drevna, the top lobbyist for the refinery industry in America, likened fossil fuel companies that work with and fund environmental groups to “appeasers.” Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, Drevna said “an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping he’ll eat him last, and that’s what’s happening,” referencing a donation from gas company to the Sierra Club.

Drevna was speaking to reporters after his remarks at the National Press Club.

“The environmental goal is to knock out coal … knock out fossil fuels,” said Drevna, who scorned Chesapeake Energy chief executive Aubrey McClendon for reportedly donating tens of millions of dollars to the Sierra Club for its anti-coal campaign.

Asked by Republic Report about the risk of manmade climate change, Drevna disagreed that human activity is driving the change.

“You could call me a denier or you could call me a flat-earther,” said Drevna. “The word climate change, just, it solicits, yes, human kinds of activity. Well, I take umbrage with that. I believe the science has become political science or political correctness rather than gee, how much is human, how much is anthropologic, how much is it natural occuring, and what can we do about it.”

Drevna is president of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a trade group that counts the largest refinery corporations in America as its members, including Tesoro Corporation, Koch Industries, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66, and Valero. AFPM has lobbied heavily on crude oil exports and on the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.