Semafor’s climate/energy newsletter sponsored by Chevron

News site Semafor has launched a climate and energy newsletter sponsored by Chevron, writes Molly Taft of Gizmodo.

Taft writes, “Semafor’s first climate and energy-focused newsletter, helmed by veteran journalist Bill Spindle, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, went out to subscribers on Monday. Among stories and analyses including a breakdown of Europe’s attempt to end its reliance on natural gas, readers were treated to a message from one of the newsletter’s first corporate sponsors: Chevron. ‘We’re working toward a lower-carbon future,’ the ad’s headline reads, above a picture of a cow’s nose, with a link to a Chevron website on turning cow waste into natural gas.

“‘Advertisers have no bearing on our editorial coverage and we maintain a strict separation between news and third-party advertisement,’ a Semafor spokesperson told Earther in an email. ‘Semafor adheres to robust ad acceptability guidelines that are industry standard. Any ads that are featured across our products are transparently positioned to the reader and clearly contextualized as advertising.’

“Oil and gas companies regularly advertise through various media platforms, even those geared specifically toward climate and clean energy. From newspaper ads that cast doubt on the scientific consensus to sponsoring UN climate change conferences and tapping Instagram influencers to promote their products as eco-friendly, Big Oil has a long history of aggressively and creatively using advertising to deny climate science or, more recently, posit itself as a leader in climate solutions.”

Read more here.