The oil and gas industry routinely claims that it employs millions of Americans as a way to perpetually delay action on climate change. New research shows it’s a total lie.

In 2020, the American Petroleum Institute (API), Washington’s top oil and gas lobby, published a study asserting that a national ban on fracking and federal oil and gas leasing could cost a whopping 7.5 million US jobs. Another API report in 2021 claimed that the oil and gas industry directly employs 2.5 million people.

According to a new analysis by the corporate watchdog Food and Water Watch, the actual number of people directly employed by the fossil fuel industry is only about half a million. Moreover, the Food and Water Watch report shows that the fossil fuel industry has been shedding jobs for years, even with oil and gas output at record levels.