Khosla said he believed a massive amount of PR money was being funded by various oil interests, including oil companies and the American Petroleum Institute.

Judged as of 2007-09-28. True: documented evidence (e.g. lobbying and advertising spending records, investigative reporting, academic studies) shows that oil companies and/or the American Petroleum Institute were spending large sums (tens of millions of dollars or more a year) on PR, advertising or messaging campaigns around 2007. Mostly true: large oil-funded PR spending is documented, but the scale is somewhat smaller than 'massive' implies, or it is mainly by one actor. Mixed: some oil-funded PR spending is documented, but the evidence is modest or ambiguous about its scale. Mostly false: spending existed but was small, or mainly occurred well before 2007. False: the evidence shows no significant oil-industry PR funding at that time. The speaker's hedge ('I believe') does not lower the bar on the factual part.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Decades of Deceit Union of Concerned Scientists · May 2025

   “Fossil fuel industry trade associations alone spent more than $1.4 billion on PR and advertising between 2008 and 2018. Nearly half of that came from API (Climate Investigations Center 2018).”

2. E2 Exxon's Snake Oil Columbia Journalism Review · 31 October 2019

   “Over the same time span, ExxonMobil gave tens of millions of dollars to think tanks and researchers who denied the science of climate change.”

3. E3 Report: Big Money Confusing Public on Global Warming ABC News · 3 January 2007

   “The UCS report found that between 1998 and 2005, ExxonMobil has funnelled about $16 million to 43 advocacy groups and 16 individuals in an effort to”

4. E4 Exxon's Snake Oil Columbia Journalism Review · 31 October 2019

   “Exxon pledges to stop funding climate denialist public policy groups; however, a 2015 Guardian investigation showed funding did not stop.”

E1 reports that fossil fuel trade associations spent more than $1.4 billion on PR and advertising between 2008 and 2018, nearly half of it from API. That averages well over tens of millions of dollars a year, starting just after the September 2007 claim date. E3 (January 2007) documents that ExxonMobil funnelled about $16 million to advocacy groups between 1998 and 2005, and E2 notes tens of millions to climate-denial think tanks. Large oil-funded messaging spending is documented in the years before and after 2007: more than $1.4 billion by fossil fuel trade associations, nearly half from API, between 2008 and 2018 [E1], and about $16 million from ExxonMobil to advocacy groups between 1998 and 2005 [E3]. However, the biggest figure (E1) begins in 2008 and is a multi-year total, and the pre-2007 Exxon figures are smaller and are funding for groups rather than direct PR. So the evidence supports the claim strongly, though somewhat indirectly for 2007 itself.