"I'm not an expert on biofuels, I don't know much about farming. And I don't have a lot of technology to add to moonshine." - ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, Feb. 2007.
The United States consumes 25 percent of the world’s oil but has only three percent of its known oil resources. The United States is also responsible for roughly 25 percent of the world's global warming pollution. Oil and gas pollute the environment from the point of extraction to combustion, leaving a trail of oil spills, smog-forming air pollution, human rights abuses, destruction of ecosystems and wildlife habitat, and greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Consumers pay a price too in the form of high gasoline prices at the pump.
Unlike the other major oil companies, ExxonMobil refuses to help reduce America's oil dependence by investing in clean, renewable energy like wind or solar power. ExxonMobil's CEO says that we "need to accept the reality" of our oil dependence rather than undertake steps to solve it.
The barrier is not a scarcity of money. In 2005, ExxonMobil made an all time record profit of $36.1 billion - more than any corporation in history. The next year, the company exceeded its own record with another $39 billion in profit. In fairness, all oil industry giants are profiting handsomely from America's oil dependence. But while the others recognize the need to diversify, ExxonMobil remains the most outspoken against the potential of clean renewable alternatives.
To justify the company's lack of investment in renewable energy, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson commonly reasons that 80 percent of the world's future energy will come from fossil fuels. The statistic comes from a worst-case scenario calculated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its 2006 World Energy Report. The scenario is based on an assumption that governments do nothing to diminish oil dependency or promote renewable energy or energy efficiency. The IEA scenario is meant to inform policy rather than predict it. Nevertheless, Exxon told its shareholders in 2007 that the projection is a “forecast.” The company doesn’t mention that the IEA also calculates that the worst-case scenario would cause carbon dioxide emissions to jump 55 percent over today's level.
