Climate Policy Score: F Chevron appears to continue opposing almost all forms of climate-motivated regulation whilst actively pushing a US energy policy agenda that accelerates oil and gas production. Chevron’s 2019 climate policy position states support only for a “market-based” route to “lower-carbon outcomes”, whilst opposing a regulatory approach that establishes GHG emission targets on the use of its products. Between 2015-2018, successive Chevron CEOs have questioned the desirability and feasibility of action on climate in line with the recommendations of the IPCC, for example by suggesting that the challenge of meeting growing energy demand in developing countries should be prioritized over urgent climate policy action. Throughout 20162017 former Chevron CEO John Watson also advocated against emissions trading and carbon taxes, suggesting they constitute an unnecessary cost to "the consumer and ... business". In 2018, Chevron appeared to shift from opposing carbon taxes, to suggesting it would support a carbon tax but only with several poorly specified conditions. Despite this, the company still donated $500K to a successful campaign to defeat a carbon tax policy proposal in Washington State in 2018. Chevron has disclosed that it supports the repeal or significant revision of US methane regulations and has directly lobbied the US EPA on the rollback of a number of methane emission measurement requirements in 2018 including, seemingly, through direct meetings with Trump Administration officials. In 2017, Chevron CEO called renewable and low carbon fuel policies in the US and Canada ‘failures’ and in 2015-2018, Chevron has repeatedly lobbied for the repeal of Renewable Fuel Standards at the federal level. Between 2016 and 2018, Chevron directly lobbied US policymakers to open US federal land to oil/gas exploration, demanding that all offshore areas from the lower 48 states and Alaska should be considered for their “hydrocarbon potential”. Chevron is represented on the boards of various trade associations that are opposing climate policy. For example, CEO Michael Wirth is on the board of directors of the American Petroleum Institute which, like Chevron, has lobbied for the rollback on US methane regulation throughout 2017-2018. The company further appears to retain membership to ALEC, a US group renowned for disseminating climate misinformation and for using legal tactics to block a range of US state-level and federal climate polices. Climate Policy Score: E ExxonMobil continues to oppose most forms of climate regulation whilst promoting an energy policy agenda to accelerate fossil fuel development. Despite claiming in 2008 that it would cease its funding of climate denial, it has continued to fund organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until 2018. ExxonMobil continues to question the desirability or feasibility of urgent action towards a global low-carbon energy transition. ExxonMobil claims to support a carbon tax as long as its revenue-neutral. However, when questioned on its lobbying activities around US carbon tax bills in 2015-2018, the company has failed to disclose the specific messaging conveyed to policymakers through this lobbying. This includes not clarifying the company’s detailed position on Republican Carlo Curbelo’s proposal to place a $24 per ton tax on carbon emissions and dedicate 70% of the revenue to rebuilding US infrastructure. In 2016, the company opposed a revenue-neutral carbon tax bill in the state of Massachusetts. ExxonMobil’s support for a carbon tax further appears to come with a number of conditions, including the rollback of other regulations such as the US Clean Power Plan. In 2018, an ExxonMobil representative explained that they would support carbon pricing only if the policy replaced the "patchwork of literally thousands of regulations, laws and mandates” currently regulating carbon emissions. Despite advocating in late 2018 for the maintenance of “key elements” of Obama-era methane regulations, ExxonMobil appears to have supported a rollback of certain technical detection requirements. ExxonMobil sits on the board of the API, which actively sought the rollback on methane regulations in 2016-2018, and company representatives accompanied the API to meetings with Trump Administration officials throughout 2017 and 2018. In 2017, ExxonMobil lobbyists actively opposed renewable energy and energy efficiency standards in Ohio and the 23 InfluenceMap March 2019

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents