Seems like Big Oil ’s chickens may be coming home to perch . On Friday , the Climate Leadership Council , a two-party , industry - supported group that advocates for middle-of-the-road mood solutions , announce that former founding member ExxonMobil had been kick out . The move follows a Greenpeace exposé thatcaught an Exxon lobbyist on tapeadmitting that the company ’s endorsement of a carbon revenue enhancement — a central policy the CLC advocates for — was nothing more than a “ with child talk item ” for the companionship .
The CLC made a grand incoming into the climate conversation in 2017 witha full - page adin the Wall Street Journal blow how its solution could create a “ much - needed bipartisan clime breakthrough . ” The rank of the CLC was always its calling poster : the group has positioned itself as a halfway - of - the - route , business - first alliance , united together to propose Sensible Solutions that would appeal to conservatives and Republicans . The chemical group boasted four Republican statesman who do under Reagan and both Bush administrations as authors onits climate scheme , while its corporal founding member execute the gamut from Johnson & Johnson to IBM to Goldman Sachs . ( Exxon was n’t the only fossil oil company in the mix : Shell , BP , Total and ConocoPhillips are also list as founding members on the group ’s page . )
The sumptuous centerpiece of the CLC ’s programme has always been a atomic number 6 tax , which has long been think of as one of the most barebones , obvious pieces of mood legislation : Make emitters ante up for their contamination to encourage them to do less of it . Unfortunately for Exxon , aGreenpeace - associate probe published last monthcaught one of its senior authorities relations functionary admitting on tape that the company ’s endorsement of a atomic number 6 taxation was little more than an “ an advocacy prick ” to make certain Exxon appear adept in the public eye .
Photo: Mark Humphrey (AP)
“ Nobody is going to propose a revenue enhancement on all Americans , and the cynical side of me says , yeah , we kind of cognize that , but it gives us a talk point that we can say , ‘ well what is ExxonMobil for , we ’re for a carbon tax , ’ ” Keith McCoy , Exxon ’s elderly director of federal telling , order in the tape Channel 4 vent last month .
“ After careful consideration , we have decided to set aside ExxonMobil ’s membership in both the Council and Americans for Carbon Dividends , our protagonism arm , ” CLC CEO Greg Bertelsen said in a statement on Friday . “ We continue to think that we will build persistent mood result by bringing together a large-minded and diverse radical of stakeholders who can work together to address this enormous challenge . ”
In an emailsent to Bloomberg News , Exxon call CLC ’s decision “ dissatisfactory and counterproductive , ” and say the move “ will in no direction deter our cause to raise carbon pricing that we trust is a decisive policy requirement to take on climate change . ”
In recent years , more petroleum company have gotten on instrument panel with the idea of passing a carbon tax . The oil and gasoline industry ’s independent lobbying arm , the American Petroleum Institute , said sooner this yearthat they were now in favour of a revenue enhancement on carbon .
Exxon may be out of the Climate Leadership Council , but plenty of greasy fellowship — as well as firms that work with fogy fuel companies on extraction , like Microsoft — are still in the chemical group . It remains to be go steady whether or not those companies will put their money where their mouth is and actually work for solutions .
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