ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods was the first to take the stage this week at the gigantic CERAWeek energy conference hosted by S&P Global. This year, for the first time, the conference has truly evolved from pure oil / gas to the energy transition. Nevertheless, tone-deaf as usual, Woods made plain that climate concerns aren’t getting in the way of Exxon profits. He has such a low expectation of a transition away from fossil fuels that Exxon is just ‘starting’ to look at, but has no serious plans, to pursue pivotal climate solutions aligned with Exxon capabilities, like hydrogen and carbon capture strategies. Incentives under the IRA are all well and good but are no basis to build a long-term business. (We think he’s suggesting a full-blown international price / tax on fossil fuel carbon. We think the right number is $300+ a ton.) Until there’s a clear path to full blown corporate profits, Exxon won’t be in the transition game.
Woods isn’t a confident speaker to start with and he was more nervous than usual during the interview by Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Prize and founder of CERAWeek. Yergin is famous for his softball questions, but he didn’t go as easy as usual on Woods, asking this time why he was suing two small company shareholders over their climate activism and resolutions. Woods mumbled a bunch of shady justifications for bullying Exxon’s critics. This is the company that for decades twisted its own research showing that the world was going to suffocate on the fumes from its own products.
Woods is a climate devil, but Yergin’s no climate hero either. He’s a smart guy and must know the facts on the progression of emissions and climate change. Nevertheless, he’s been a patsy interviewer for the oil and gas execs for decades – and still is. His CERA week wouldn’t be wildly popular and PROFITABLE to him and his cronies without his oil / gas paid-for ‘partnerships’ and CEO interviews. They wouldn’t show up if they were worried he’d ask tough questions.
This week, his CEO interviewees contend they’re more essential to global energy security and prosperity than ever. These execs, like Woods of Exxon, Wirth of Chevron, and Amin Nasser of Saudi Aramco, are planning on even more fossil fuel production / consumption in the decades to come. There’s no hope of reductions - the opposite of net zero by 2050. The least Yergin could do is ask these execs what they think their fossil fuel production plans, which are wildly at odds with climate science, will do to the planet the next 10 to 30 years. They could at least be pressed on the topic even if they won’t answer the question.
Young Americans are finally figuring out that these big oil execs, Woods of Exxon and Wirth of Chevron, are their true climate enemies and are exercising 1960’s style civil disobedience actions at public events where Woods and Wirth are being ‘honored’. Video clips here and here. But good young Americans don’t have to storm stages and risk arrest to make a difference on climate: they can get registered and vote this Fall against the Republican Climate Denial Party.
