ExxonMobil "shocked" by lobbyists' comments that support for carbon tax is a PR ploy

US oil giant Exxon Mobil Corporation’s (NYSE:XOM) support for a carbon tax has been dismissed as nothing but a public relations ploy by Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group. Greenpeace’s investigative journalism branch, Unearthed, posted a video interview with Keith McCoy, a senior director in Exxon’s Washington government affairs team, in which he essentially said the company could score a few brownie points by expressing support for a carbon tax as Republicans in the US Congress will never introduce it. “Nobody is going to propose a tax on all Americans, and the cynical side of me says, yeah, we kind of know that – but it gives us a talking point that we can say, well, what is ExxonMobil for? Well, we’re for a carbon tax,” McCoy said in the interview. Unearthed reporters posed as recruitment consultants looking to hire a Washington lobbyist for a major client and interviewed McCoy on Zoom. During the interview, McCoy revealed that Exxon has funded “shadow groups” whose aims are to muddy the waters over climate change issues. McCoy said the support was not illegal and the purpose was to look out for the interests of Exxon shareholders. Unearthed also interviewed Exxon’s former White House lobbyist, Dan Easley, who said the oil and gas industry was also lobbying against other environmental issues, such as the requirement for the federal government to purchase green energy and retrofit federal buildings. Easley said the worry was that a future Republican administration would be unable to reverse such developments once they became law. As one might expect, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive officer, Dan Woods, quickly distanced the company from the lobbyists’ comments. “Comments made by the individuals in no way represent the company’s position on a variety of issues, including climate policy and our firm commitment that carbon pricing is important to addressing climate change. The individuals interviewed were never involved in developing the company’s policy positions on the issues discussed,” Woods said in a written statement to the Guardian newspaper. “We condemn the statements and are deeply apologetic for them, including comments regarding interactions with elected officials. They are entirely inconsistent with the way we expect our people to conduct themselves. We were shocked by these interviews and stand by our commitments to working on finding solutions to climate change,” Woods said.