These documents, many of which are copies of internal emails between oil company officials, show that ExxonMobil will persuade large corporations and oil giants to join a large-scale carbon capture project in Texas in 2021. I explained that I persuaded them to jointly invest. Elsewhere, a corporate official said BP, Shell and French oil company Total Energies are reducing their carbon footprint by selling their Canadian oil sands interests to other keen investors. We’re discussing in one email whether we’ve increased it or not.
Big oil companies have been accused of selling oil sands assets to small businesses, effectively restructuring their carbon responsibilities. Against that criticism A spokesperson said:
Scientists say the world must move away from fossil fuels rapidly to prevent the worst impacts of projected climate change.
for over a year, The commission, along with Washington’s two largest trade associations, the American Petroleum Institute and the American Chamber of Commerce, has examined a handful of major oil companies. The research looked for documents about industry campaigns to influence public opinion and policy on climate change.
The commission says the industry misleads the public by touting its commitment to cleaner energy despite its disproportionate investment in fossil fuels.9 In an earlier release of documents on March 14, the commission said the oil companies were committing ongoing deception following previous revelations that they were working to undermine the credibility of climate science. condemned.
“Rather than outright denying global warming, the fossil fuel industry has ‘greenwashed’ its record through deceptive advertising and pledges to climate change.
Todd Spitler, ExxonMobil Senior Counsel for Media Relations and Government Affairs, said: Company disinformation campaign. “
Each company in the report, which includes ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, was asked by the commission to provide about 15 to 30 documents.
One of the biggest problems was garnering support for ExxonMobil’s effort to become a $100 billion carbon capture project south of Houston. ExxonMobil was told by a potential partner that it would only participate with other companies “with reputable climate certification and name recognition.”
“Chevron is looking at Exxon numbers related to stocks, jobs saved, jobs created to inflate, but harmless inflation,” said an email about Exxon’s proposal. . “Chevron has had some internal disagreements on Houston-centric themes, but we see that as a minor concern. increase.”
Many companies were hesitant about the Houston project, but now more than 10 companies are backing the proposal. ExxonMobil still looks to the federal government as a potential source of tax credits to cut costs. Tax credits have been significantly expanded under the recent Inflation Control Act.
In another e-mail exchange in 2016, oil company executives said they were criticizing their companies for their actions in the face of criticism from climate activists, including Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard academic and author of a book on oil industry public relations. He said he needed to polish his image. campaign.
“At the moment, people like Naomi Oreskes[Merchant of Doubt]are portraying people like us as ‘climate change deniers. Because we do not believe that renewable energy will solve the entire transition, nor do we believe it will do so in decades. ’” the official wrote.
The documents also detail an altercation between Shell’s outgoing chief executive Ben van Baden and Fred Krupp, president of the advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund, in 2017. Krupp said methane is being emitted throughout the natural gas supply chain, making it as bad an energy source as coal in terms of greenhouse gases.
Van Baden said of Krupp: “I was very disappointed that he treated us so badly when in principle we should stand shoulder to shoulder.” We’ve gone a step too far,” he said.
Krupp said in an email today that he has been talking to Van Baden and other executives since then. “The industry continues to release large amounts of methane, and EDF continues to press, both publicly and privately, to take action to close these leaks,” he said.
The documents obtained by the Washington Post are just some of the documents that a House committee plans to release Friday to further condemn what it calls the “greenwashing” of the oil industry. A company official estimated that the total documents he requested was well over a million pages.
