The U.K.’s Channel 4 News aired a damning video put together by Greenpeace on Wednesday. In it Exxon lobbyists, believing they were interviewing for jobs, dished rather matter-o-factly on how they’ve pushed and supported climate denier anti-science successfully in order to water down some of the more environmentally sound infrastructure focuses in the original Biden package. Interviews with senior director of federal relations at Exxon, Keith McCoy, saying things like “Did we fight aggressively against some of the science? Yes. Did we hide our science? Absolutely not. Did we join some of these shadow groups to work against some of the early efforts? Yes, that’s true. But there’s nothing, there’s nothing illegal about that,” have led to quite a backlash.
On Wednesday, McCoy went to LinkedIn to do some damage control, writing: “I am deeply embarrassed by my comments and that I allowed myself to fall for Greenpeace’s deception. My statements clearly do not represent ExxonMobil’s positions on important public policy issues. While some of my comments were taken out of context, there is no excuse for what I said or how I said it. I apologize to all my colleagues at the company and my friends in Washington, D.C., all of whom have a right to expect better of me.” But they do represent ExxonMobil’s positions. You might have to apologize to fellow colleagues for saying it on camera to the people who don’t take the campaign checks with your boss’ moniker on it, but you told the world exactly what your job and ExxonMobil’s job is when it comes to government influence.
Admitting to lobbying against climate change isn’t shocking in itself. What is surprising is how McCoy and Dan Easley, the other Exxon lobbyist recorded by Greenpeace, openly explain with their own words coming out of their own mouths how craven and environmentally shortsighted the manipulations of our Congress by them really are. As McCoy himself explained unwittingly to Greenpeace, ExxonMobil doesn’t like having its hands publicly dirty: “We don’t want it to be us, to have these conversations, especially in a hearing. It’s getting our associations to step in and have those conversations and answer those tough questions and be for, the lack of a better term, the whipping boy for some of these members of congress.”
They then identify and call out 11 senators considered “crucial” to securing the best interests of ExxonMobil over the people of the … entire world. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Jon Tester (D-MT), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), John Barrasso (R-WY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Chris Coons (D-DE), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are all considered to be in the pockets of oil executives, willing to block or dilute legislation that might hurt the companies’ profit margins. Channel 4 News was able to confirm that all but Hasssan and Kelly had received money from ExxonMobil.
The way this works in real life, as the ExxonMobil lobbyist explained, is by giving Congress members ways to argue down budgets. In doing so, it makes it harder for “something on emissions reductions on climate change to oil refineries” to make it through. You argue that a highway bill shouldn’t have these reductions connected to them and a Sen. Joe Manchin can use this as part of his bullshit bipartisan platform.
One of the more damning statements made by McCoy is that ExxonMobil’s support of a carbon tax is disingenuous by nature. According to McCoy, the chances of a real carbon tax getting legislated in the United States is so low that in supporting it, ExxonMobil is basically supporting unicorns for every child born after 2010.
Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil Darren Woods released a statement that was broadcasted to Twitter on Wednesday.
That’s interesting. McCoy, according to his LinkedIn profile, has been the senior director of federal relations for ExxonMobil for over seven years now. I guess ExxonMobil just let the guy act as their main lobbyist, overseeing all of their interests and voice in our Congress for the past seven years just ‘cause? An editor at Channel 4 News replied to the tweet, saying: “This was not your response to our allegations in the right to reply. More to come tonight.” Oh, goodie!
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On Wednesday, McCoy went to LinkedIn to do some damage control, writing: “I am deeply embarrassed by my comments and that I allowed myself to fall for Greenpeace’s deception. My statements clearly do not represent ExxonMobil’s positions on important public policy issues. While some of my comments were taken out of context, there is no excuse for what I said or how I said it. I apologize to all my colleagues at the company and my friends in Washington, D.C., all of whom have a right to expect better of me.” But they do represent ExxonMobil’s positions. You might have to apologize to fellow colleagues for saying it on camera to the people who don’t take the campaign checks with your boss’ moniker on it, but you told the world exactly what your job and ExxonMobil’s job is when it comes to government influence.
Admitting to lobbying against climate change isn’t shocking in itself. What is surprising is how McCoy and Dan Easley, the other Exxon lobbyist recorded by Greenpeace, openly explain with their own words coming out of their own mouths how craven and environmentally shortsighted the manipulations of our Congress by them really are. As McCoy himself explained unwittingly to Greenpeace, ExxonMobil doesn’t like having its hands publicly dirty: “We don’t want it to be us, to have these conversations, especially in a hearing. It’s getting our associations to step in and have those conversations and answer those tough questions and be for, the lack of a better term, the whipping boy for some of these members of congress.”
They then identify and call out 11 senators considered “crucial” to securing the best interests of ExxonMobil over the people of the … entire world. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Jon Tester (D-MT), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), John Barrasso (R-WY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Chris Coons (D-DE), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are all considered to be in the pockets of oil executives, willing to block or dilute legislation that might hurt the companies’ profit margins. Channel 4 News was able to confirm that all but Hasssan and Kelly had received money from ExxonMobil.
The way this works in real life, as the ExxonMobil lobbyist explained, is by giving Congress members ways to argue down budgets. In doing so, it makes it harder for “something on emissions reductions on climate change to oil refineries” to make it through. You argue that a highway bill shouldn’t have these reductions connected to them and a Sen. Joe Manchin can use this as part of his bullshit bipartisan platform.
One of the more damning statements made by McCoy is that ExxonMobil’s support of a carbon tax is disingenuous by nature. According to McCoy, the chances of a real carbon tax getting legislated in the United States is so low that in supporting it, ExxonMobil is basically supporting unicorns for every child born after 2010.
Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil Darren Woods released a statement that was broadcasted to Twitter on Wednesday.
That’s interesting. McCoy, according to his LinkedIn profile, has been the senior director of federal relations for ExxonMobil for over seven years now. I guess ExxonMobil just let the guy act as their main lobbyist, overseeing all of their interests and voice in our Congress for the past seven years just ‘cause? An editor at Channel 4 News replied to the tweet, saying: “This was not your response to our allegations in the right to reply. More to come tonight.” Oh, goodie!
YouTube Video