{"id":272683,"date":"2024-09-02T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=272683"},"modified":"2025-01-10T15:03:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:03:28","slug":"how-exxon-chases-billions-in-us-subsidies-for-a-climate-solution-that-helps-it-drill-more-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/09\/how-exxon-chases-billions-in-us-subsidies-for-a-climate-solution-that-helps-it-drill-more-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"How Exxon Chases Billions in US Subsidies for a \u2018Climate Solution\u2019 That Helps It Drill More Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Exxon facility in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on 28 Feb 2020.
Photograph: Barry Lewis\/In Pictures via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Climate experts raise red flags as oil giant spends millions lobbying while touting \u2018underperforming\u2019 carbon capture.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

29 Aug 2024 <\/em>– W<\/span>hen the oil giant ExxonMobil sponsored an event at the re-energizing Democratic national convention (DNC) in Chicago last week, it was disrupted by climate activists outraged that big oil was invited on to an influential political platform. \u201cExxon lies, people die<\/a>,\u201d protesters shouted before being evicted.<\/p>\n

The event included a \u201cfireside chat<\/a>\u201d with Vijay Swarup, the company\u2019s senior climate strategy and technology director. Swarup is a 30-year Exxon veteran who headed the company\u2019s research and development team for just under a decade, and oversaw initiatives on biofuels, carbon capture and storage (CCS)<\/a> and hydrogen.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the DNC event, Swarup said<\/a>: \u201cWe need new technology and we need policy to support that technology. We need governments working with private industry.\u201d The Exxon executive also praised the Biden administration<\/a>\u2019s landmark climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in 2022, for helping the company pursue new CCS and hydrogen projects.<\/p>\n

He is not alone in that regard. At an oil summit in Houston earlier this year, Exxon\u2019s CEO, Darren Woods, said, \u201cI am very supportive of the IRA\u201d and acknowledged the legislation \u201cespecially benefited<\/a>\u201d the company.<\/p>\n

Exxon is set to receive billions in public subsidies because of the legislation.<\/p>\n

The US multinational has not always been such a strong advocate for the technology, but now argues that CCS is crucial in the climate fight and works, in theory, by capturing carbon dioxide from hard-to-abate heavy industries, like steel or cement, and pumping it underground to be stored indefinitely. Exxon champions itself as a \u201cglobal leader<\/a>\u201d in CCS, maintaining it is driving \u201cmeaningful change<\/a>\u201d in the fight against global heating.<\/p>\n

But an estimated two-thirds to three-quarters of the carbon currently captured in the US is used to extract hard-to-reach reserves, a practice known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). And the reputation of CCS has largely been one of \u201cunderperformance\u201d and \u201cunmet expectations\u201d, the International Energy<\/a> Agency said in 2023.<\/p>\n

And Exxon\u2019s shift to promoting CCS \u2013 or any climate solution \u2013 is relatively recent. For much of Swarup\u2019s three decades at Exxon, the oil giant was accused by civil society and climate scientists as being behind a vast network of neoliberal organizations<\/a> that have denied evidence about the climate emergency, manufactured scientific doubt and delayed regulatory action.<\/p>\n

Michael Mann, one of the world\u2019s leading climate scientists, outlines in his book the New Climate War<\/a>, the substantial role Exxon played in both denying the threat of climate change and opposing efforts to move toward clean energy. Journalist Steve Coll also recalls in his 2012 book Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power<\/a> how Exxon remained in the defiant \u201cfuck you, no apologies, oil-is-here-to-stay mode\u201d.<\/p>\n