A top lobbyist has been caught on tape encouraging oil and gas industry executives to dig up embarrassing details about environmentalists and to exploit emotions like fear. An executive gave The New York Times a secret recording of the speech by Richard Berman, a lobbyist who creates nonprofits, then covertly uses them to advance a range of corporate agendas. Berman made the speech in June as he raised millions to fund an ad campaign called Big Green Radicals, which has run pro-fracking ads in Colorado and Pennsylvania.