WTF: Exxon Calls for Carbon Tax to Fight Global Warming

The world’s largest oil company has done an about-face from its former stance on global warming, suddenly announcing that it backs a carbon tax. The company has denied the existence of global warming for years, funding global warming denial groups and research. Exxon boss Rex Tillerson said he believes that a carbon tax is a “more direct, more transparent and a more effective approach” to controlling greenhouse gases than any other plans that have been proposed.

From The Independent:

Exxon had already dropped its funding of lobby groups which deny the science of climate change and begun to take a softer public line, but even Mr Tillerson admitted that propounding a carbon tax had stuck in the craw until recently. However, with European-style “cap and trade” rules governing carbon emissions moving up the agenda in the US, a carbon tax may be the least worst option, he said. Environmental groups gave a sceptical response to Exxon’s U-turn, calling it a deliberate attempt to torpedo the movement for outright carbon caps and any early switch to alternative energy. “A carbon tax is also the most efficient means of reflecting the cost of carbon in all economic decisions – from investments made by companies to fuel their requirements, to the product choices made by consumers,” Mr Tillerson said in a speech to the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars, a Washington think-tank.

Shocking, to say the least – but Greenpeace isn’t buying it. They believe that Mr. Tillerson’s statements are nothing more than a smokescreen for Exxon’s attempts to slow down the switch to alternative fuels.

“A carbon tax is a political poison pill,” said Kert Davies, a research director at Greenpeace. “No politician in the US would propose something with the word tax in it. Being in favour of something makes Exxon look like it is being intellectual, but this threatens to derail the prevailing international discussion.”

It’s highly unlikely that a carbon tax will pass, especially in a recession, so it’s fairly ‘safe’ for Tillerson to have made such remarks. The Huffington Post’s Andrew Winston theorizes that Exxon knows that a carbon tax would ultimately be cheaper for Exxon than a cap-and-trade.

From The Huffington Post:

The wrangling over a cap-and-trade system — who will pay for permits, who’s included in the “cap”, and so on — will be ugly. But you can bet that energy and utility companies will face the most traumatic changes and restrictions. A tax, on the other hand, would wind its way through the economy to the places that the supply and demand curves dictate (those with “inelastic” demand are more likely to pay the price). Basically, even if it’s taxed at the pipeline or refinery, the actual cost could be passed on to consumers. But isn’t that the point? A tax or a cap should reduce consumption, which won’t happen without a higher price signal. Only when gas hit $4 a gallon, did people demand more energy-efficient cars.

I don’t trust Exxon for one second, so I find it hard to believe that they’re suddenly supporters of global warming legislation. They’ve gained a reputation as the world’s #1 global warming villain for a reason and any greenwashing efforts to change public opinion of them are not going to work on most of us (check out this HuffPo editorial by Robert F. Kennedy for the lowdown on Exxon’s shady past).

Link [The Independent] + [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user azrainman

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