Yes, the perverse incentive of the oil lobby is transparently staggering. Even if one is charitable, that the lobbyists believe their own talking points, "it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it".

That said, it didn't help the politicization of the climate for Al Gore to have become its face, thus associating its brand with Democrats, for all his pleading that "this issue is moral, not political". He meant well, but it was painfully naive.