Exxon Mobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods is trying to influence the Trump administration‘s climate change policy plans, pushing the president-elect to stay in the Paris climate agreement and reject carbon border taxes supported by some GOP members.
Exxon has publicly supported the Paris climate agreement since 2015, and Woods claims a second departure from the agreement would harm the global fight against climate change. The company’s climate change policies have faced criticism for years, but Woods’s engagement in the political climate conversation comes as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House and change current climate regulations.
“I don’t think the challenge or the need to address global emissions is going to go away,” Woods told Politico following Trump’s reelection to the White House. “Anything that happens in the short term would just make the longer term that much more challenging.”
President Joe Biden‘s administration has put in extreme effort to act on climate change, making policies aimed at reducing greenhouse pollution and creating clean energy, as well as bringing the United States back into the Paris Climate Pact.
“It’s ironic that the major oil companies are not supportive of the ‘drill, baby, drill,’ strategy, nor are their shareholders,” Paul Sankey, an independent analyst, told the Wall Street Journal. “They’ve been working very hard to lower their emissions, and the last thing they want is for all the rules and regulations to change again.”
Some of those on Trump’s transition team are outspoken skeptics of climate change as well, including Harold Hamm, who founded Oklahoma driller Continental Resources and opposed Biden’s policies, and contender for the role of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the CEO of oilfield services firm Liberty Energy.
Trump’s first term also had appointees positioned against climate change. Former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was one of the first to pitch carbon border tariffs, claiming they would benefit American companies that produce cleaner products than foreign competitors.
“I think it’s a bad idea. It’s a really bad idea,” Woods said. “I think carbon border adjustment is going to introduce a whole new level of complexity and bureaucratic red tape. I don’t think it’s going to be very effective.”
Woods instead sees carbon regulation as a more realistic way to curb emissions and remove carbon border tariffs.
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“I’ve been advising that we have some level of consistency,” Woods said. “One of the challenges with this polarized political environment we find ourselves in is the impact of policy switching back and forth as political cycles occur and elections happen and administrations change. That’s not good for the economy.”
“We all have a responsibility to figure out, given our capabilities and ability to contribute, how can we best do that,” Woods said. “How the Trump administration can contribute in this space is to help establish the right, thoughtful, rational, logical framework for how the world starts to try to reduce the emissions.”