If you care about the planet, please make sure you sit down before you start reading this post about ExxonMobil.
So.
The CEO of ExxonMobil just said this in an interview: "We’ve waited too long to open the aperture on the solution sets in terms of what we need, as a society, to start reducing emissions."
Who's the most influential voice on climate change? Who's to blame for inaction on climate change?
According to the CEO of ExxonMobil, it's environmental activists.
No, really:
"Frankly, society, and the activist—the dominant voice in this discussion—has tried to exclude the industry that has the most capacity and the highest potential for helping with some of the technologies."
Oh, and the CEO of ExxonMobil also apparently thinks consumers are to blame for climate inaction:
"Today we have opportunities to make fuels with lower carbon, but people aren’t willing to spend the money to do that."
Gets better.
He thinks unnamed 'people who generate emissions' should pay for it. (Rather than, say, major transnational oil companies.)
"People who are generating the emissions need to be aware of [it] and pay the price. That’s ultimately how you solve the problem."
So, remind me again. Who knew about climate change before most of the public?
"Exxon was aware of climate change, as early as 1977, 11 years before it became a public issue... This knowledge did not prevent the company (now ExxonMobil and the world’s largest oil and gas company) from spending decades refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and even promoting climate misinformation."
And just who, exactly, stood in the way reducing emissions all these years?
"ExxonMobil executives privately sought to undermine climate science even after the oil and gas giant publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change, according to previously unreported documents...
"The new revelations are based on previously unreported documents subpoenaed by New York’s attorney general as part of an investigation into the company announced in 2015. They add to a slew of documents that record a decades-long misinformation campaign waged by Exxon, which are cited in a growing number of state and municipal lawsuits against big oil."
“By announcing hundreds of new oil and gas licences, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has become a “dangerous radical” pursuing “moral and economic madness”.
That is not the judgment of Just Stop Oil, or any other environmental campaign group, but the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres.”
This is a horrendous decision: Rosebank, the largest untapped oilfield in UK waters, has been approved by the UK government. This comes via the regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority, which is in severe need of reform.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on a podcast series about the structure and ownership of the UK oil sector, because this is essential understanding for dismantling it. It’s been eye-opening, but empowering. It’ll be out in 2-3 weeks.
I think I'm still in recovery from learning a few weeks ago that Canadian fossil fuel companies tell people that because it's "natural" gas that they produce, burning it can't hurt the environment. And people believe them. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, remember that and 🤯🤯🤯🤯
I look forward to the day when we have to explain the oil industry to the next generation in the same way that our history teachers explain that yes, it used to be common to use lead in makeup, to smoke on planes, and to teach workers using radioactive paint to lick their brushes.
In March, EU #oil imports from Russia fell by 90% compared to the 2019-2022 average. EU sanctions against #Russia and the G7 price cap on Russian petrol and related products are delivering results.
“Chicago sued 6 major #oil companies and the primary fossil fuel lobbying group, alleging they funded & planned a campaign of climate change denial that directly affects the city’s residents.
The penalties come after an investigation by The Desert Sun and ProPublica found that companies were profiting from illegal spills and California’s oversight of the industry was lax.
35 years ago today, the Exxon Valdez had a "minor" drunk driving accident that changed our state. Not a single mention on the ADN website. Never forget. #Alaska#ExxonValdez#Oil
👏🏻“Judge has ordered Canadian energy company Enbridge (ENB.TO) to shutter portions of an #oil pipeline that runs through tribal land in #Wisconsin within three years and to pay the tribe nearly $5.2 million for trespassing plus a portion of its profits until the shutdown is completed.” #legal
The oil industry has mostly operated in relative invisibility, and now lots of us want to see the back of it. But how does it operate, who controls and own it, how deep do its tentacles go into everyday life, and who will be impacted by getting rid of it?
To find out, do listen to our 4-part Intelligence Squared podcast Tides of Transformation (first part now out), looking at all of those questions, mostly in relation to the North Sea: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/tides-of-transformation/
After the #fossilfuels friendly #COP28 was engineered to be short on firm commitments & long on pious #oil industry-friendly 'aspirations'... the news that #COP29 in #Baku will be chaired by (another) oil industry veteran, should finally put paid to the idea that we can expect a radical & accelerated #greentransition through this process.
Time ran out a while back to follow the oil industry's gradualism - our political generation is just fiddling while the planet burns!
Defence Intelligence of Ukraine has said that Ukraine has regained control of gas and oil drilling platforms near occupied Crimea, known as the Boyko Towers.
Last week the NRC reported about a little-known refueling (bunkering) point in the south-west of the #Netherlands, at the entrance of the Schelde near #vlissingen. The newspaper uncovered that it is being used by a #shadow#fleet of often badly maintained and very old tanker vessels which play a pivotal role in turning sanctioned Russian #oil in to not sanctioned oil. The vessels make their way from Baltic ports along the North Sea, either to India or Turkey. The newspaper called this bunkering point "Putin's petrol station", because on the way back the sanctioned vessels stock up on fuel. The ships all fly under several different "flags of convenience" and as their companies get put on sanction lists, the ships move to other owners.
It is not often that international politics, global capital, supply chains, the news and infrastructure congeal the way it does at Putin's Pitstop so I had to go take a look #infrastructours.
Ukraine regains control of Boyko Towers in Black Sea (www.pravda.com.ua)
Defence Intelligence of Ukraine has said that Ukraine has regained control of gas and oil drilling platforms near occupied Crimea, known as the Boyko Towers.
Russia Defies Sanctions by Selling Oil Above Price Cap (www.wsj.com)
Higher prices could bolster Moscow’s oil-export revenues, which last month dropped to just over half their level from a year ago.
Ukraine declares war on Russia’s Black Sea shipping (www.politico.eu)
Kyiv warns it’s ‘completely unjustifiable’ for Western vessels to continue shipping Russian oil.
Shell still trading Russian gas despite pledge to stop (www.bbc.co.uk)
The firm is still shipping gas from Siberia despite its promise to withdraw from the Russian energy market.