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Page added on December 13, 2016
Tillerson in His Own Words
Exxon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to become Secretary of State. Here are some comments Tillerson, 64, has made in recent years on trade, sanctions and climate change:
Exxon Diplomacy
Anything that promotes global energy security is in U.S. national interest. Any steps we [Exxon] take to develop new resources, to promote trading relationships, to promote stability in countries, from a socioeconomic, geopolitical perspective, that is all in U.S. national interest. We do not represent the U.S. government as we travel around the world, we never pretend to do that and we never ask the U.S. government to do anything on our behalf. (interview on Charlie Rose, 2013)
Free Trade
By supporting free trade, opening up access, and allowing the free flow of goods and services, governments help industry find more innovative and efficient ways to bring energy to market…. History is clear and unequivocal: Free trade lifts the prospects of nations and improves the lives of people across borders, regions, and oceans. (prepared remarks for World Gas Conference speech, June 2015)
Trans-Pacific Partnership
Congress has been debating Trade Promotion Authority. If passed, it would give President Obama authority to move forward on two major, pending free-trade agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would strengthen the economic relations among 11 nations in the Asia-Pacific region, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which would increase trade between the U.S. and European Union. Completing such agreements would revitalize the global discussion of — and renew the appreciation for — the value of international trade and investment. (prepared remarks for World Gas Conference speech, June 2015)
Sanctions
We don’t find them to be effective unless they are very well implemented comprehensively, and that’s a very hard thing to do. So we always encourage the people who are making those decisions to consider the very broad collateral damage of who are they really harming with sanctions, and what are their objectives, and whether sanctions are really effective or not. (2014 annual shareholder meeting)
Government’s Role
Governments around the world must put in place sound tax, legal, and regulatory frameworks. With sound policies enacted, investment, innovation, and cooperation can flourish. Government works best when it maintains a level playing field; opens the doors for competition; and refrains from picking winners and losers. (prepared remarks for 2015 speech at Oil & Money conference)
Climate Change
I view global warming and climate change as a serious risk and I’m in the risk management business…. It is clear that there is an impact [of carbon dioxide emissions], what’s not clear is our ability to measure with a great degree of accuracy or certainty exactly how large that impact will be. (interview with Charlie Rose, 2013)
Energy Independence
Energy independence and energy security are really two different things. And I think what the U.S. policy and what’s in the best interest of American consumers has been and should be — is securing access to energy in a reliable, relatively affordable way. And if we’re able to do that, where it comes from should be of little consequence to us, if it’s reliable, if I have a system of policies that ensure I have reliable, affordable sources of energy. If you don’t like the people you’re buying it from, that’s a different issue. (speech at Council on Foreign Relations, June 2012)
Carbon Tax
We have long supported a carbon tax as the best policy of those being considered. Replacing the hodge-podge of current, largely ineffective regulations with a revenue-neutral carbon tax would ensure a uniform and predictable cost of carbon across the economy. It would allow market forces to drive solutions. It would maximize transparency, reduce administrative complexity, promote global participation and easily adjust to future developments in our understanding of climate science as well as the policy consequences of these actions. (prepared remarks for 2016 speech at Oil & Money conference)
Keystone XL
We need to approve critical infrastructure projects, such as the Keystone XL pipeline. The United States and Canada both need this — and other — vital infrastructure projects. Keystone XL would do more than deliver oil from Alberta and North Dakota’s Bakken Shale to refiners on the Gulf Coast. It would improve U.S. competitiveness, increase North American energy security, and strengthen the relationship with one of our most important allies and trading partners. (prepared remarks for 2015 speech at IHS CERAWeek conference)
Boy Scouts
Scouting and my church were the most influential parts of my life growing up.
(Speech to Boy Scouts of America Sam Houston Area Council, 2014)
Career Path
I did not intend to go to work in the oil and gas industry.The year before graduating from the University of Texas, I had spent the summer working for Armco Steel Corp., one of the largest steel mills in the United States. I planned to work there after graduation because they offered the most money and a guaranteed promotion within six months. But a couple of recruiters from Exxon wouldn’t take no for an answer. (prepared remarks for 2015 speech accepting Petroleum Executive of the Year award)
12 Comments on "Tillerson in His Own Words"
Apneaman on Tue, 13th Dec 2016 9:35 pm
Reversing Course, E.P.A. Says Fracking Can Contaminate Drinking Water
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/reversing-course-epa-says-fracking-can-contaminate-drinking-water.html?_r=2
Exxon’s Pro-Fracking CEO Is Suing to Stop Fracking Near His Mansion
Chris Hayes introduces the latest victim of hydraulic fracking: an ExxonMobil CEO and his super-rich friends.
https://www.thenation.com/article/exxons-pro-fracking-ceo-suing-stop-fracking-near-his-mansion/
I thought the cancer kings agreed to NOT frack near the rich.
Top Shale Fracking Executive: We Won’t Frack the Rich
https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/04/21/top-shale-fracking-executive-we-won-t-frack-wealthy
Oh well, Trump and Co will gut the EPA & climate science and then the fighting will be over. Then if anyone tries to talk about it he can use the power of the police state to jail them under some national security BS.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. – George Orwell
The EPA is good for local pollution, but did nothing that matters in regards to AGW, nor has the science. Just look at the keeling curve climb higher every year – nothing matters more. The humans are a cancer. They can silence anyone they want, but it won’t stop the droughts, sea level rise, Mega, town destroying, wildfires, record breaking rain bombs, ocean acidifiction and species going extinct by the hundreds everyday and all the rest of the biosphere destroying behavior the humans are unable to stop. Humans will learn a hard lesson in biology when they finally realize that they cannot survive without many other species. Think of one of those Guinness book of world record Domino displays, but in slow motion. The fist Domino has already fallen. Humans are just one more domino down the line that will tumble.
Kenz300 on Wed, 14th Dec 2016 9:30 am
Climate Change is real….. we will all be impacted by it
Exxon’s Climate Change Cover-Up Is ‘Unparalleled Evil,’ Says Activist
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/exxon-evil-bill-mckibben_561e7362e4b028dd7ea5f45f?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green§ion=green
Apneaman on Wed, 14th Dec 2016 10:47 am
The Icy Bay landslide in Alaska: a nice video describing the link with glacial melting
“The landslide, pictured above, occurred on 17th October 2015 occurred on the flanks of Taan Fjord in Icy Bay in Alaska. I featured this landslide, which was detected via the seismic detection system developed by Goran Ekstrom and Colin Stark, in a blog post at the start of this year. As noted above, this is the largest recorded landslide in North America, with a volume of about 72 million cubic metres and a mass of about 180 million tonnes. The landslide generated a large tsunami that caused extensive damage along the flanks of Taan Fjord.”
http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2016/12/07/icy-bay-landslide/
Apneaman on Wed, 14th Dec 2016 10:53 am
Hottest Arctic on record triggers massive ice melt (Update)
“The Arctic region is continuing to warm up more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, which is also expected to mark its hottest year in modern times”
http://phys.org/news/2016-12-hottest-arctic-triggers-massive-ice.html#jCp
Apneaman on Wed, 14th Dec 2016 11:09 am
Denial: Self-Deception, False Beliefs, and the Origins of the Human Mind.
“The awareness of our own mortality could have caused anxieties that resulted in our avoiding the risks of competing to procreate-an evolutionary dead-end. Humans therefore needed to evolve a mechanism for overcoming this hurdle: the denial of reality.
As a consequence of this evolutionary quirk we now deny any aspects of reality that are not to our liking-we smoke cigarettes, eat unhealthy foods, and avoid exercise, knowing these habits are a prescription for an early death. And so what has worked to establish our species could be our undoing if we continue to deny the consequences of unrealistic approaches to everything from personal health to financial risk-taking to climate change.”
http://cmm.ucsd.edu/varki/denial/home.html
Mind Over Reality
https://vimeo.com/148408381
Apneaman on Wed, 14th Dec 2016 11:13 am
Arctic Report Card 2016 – 3:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0rp6-BEur8
Midnight Oil on Wed, 14th Dec 2016 8:29 pm
Bill McKibben in his own words
I think that what’s going on is that the Trump administration has decided to drop all pretense. They are fully engaged in full-on climate denial, and they are fully clients of the fossil fuel industry. You know, for a very long time, the fossil fuel industry has wielded undue power in our political affairs, under both Democratic and Republican administrations. You’ll recall that it was Dick Cheney, who had been helping run Halliburton, the oil service company, that dominated the George W. Bush administration. But in this case, they have literally decided to cut out the middleman. And now, the world’s biggest fossil fuel company and, in many of the most recent years, the most profitable company on Earth, the biggest company the world has ever seen, is just basically going to be in charge of things
http://m.democracynow.org/stories/16911
Yep, oil makes the world go round, Billie Boy
Davy on Thu, 15th Dec 2016 6:56 am
Bill McKibben in his own words
I think that what’s going on is that the Trump administration has decided to drop all pretense. They are fully engaged in full-on climate denial, and they are fully clients of the fossil fuel industry. You know, for a very long time, the fossil fuel industry has wielded undue power in our political affairs, under both Democratic and Republican administrations. You’ll recall that it was Dick Cheney, who had been helping run Halliburton, the oil service company, that dominated the George W. Bush administration. But in this case, they have literally decided to cut out the middleman. And now, the world’s biggest fossil fuel company and, in many of the most recent years, the most profitable company on Earth, the biggest company the world has ever seen, is just basically going to be in charge of things
http://m.democracynow.org/stories/16911
Yep, oil makes the world go round, Billie Boy
Davy on Thu, 15th Dec 2016 6:59 am
Sorry, failed comment post. Here is what I meant:
Bill McKibben is a denialist. He denies the reality we are finished with or without changes. He thinks we can decarbonize and billions won’t die. He thinks we can maintain a civilization with a plan B that is still intensive but without carbon. Bill McKibben is a joke as are most radical climate change advocates who claim a plan B. Guy McPherson is on to something and that revolves around let’s begin reductionism with hospices because death is ahead for our civilization. That said Bill McKibben is at least smart enough to understand science. Climate deniers like Trump are wrong and in a very bad way. Trump is rejecting science and knowledge. His type are rejecting reality and the truth. I am not sure if climate deniers are wrong on one level and that is should we do anything dramatic? Will dramatic carbon reduction destroy us or will the status quo destroy us? I think both will and we need to consider which course is better or which combination of action and no action will be best. Which road will give us the most time before things fall apart?
Jerome Purtzer on Thu, 15th Dec 2016 4:26 pm
The Donald is so smart it must hurt. Perhaps that is why he always has that 4 day constipated look on his face. Wolfgang Pauli said-It’s so wrong, it isn’t even wrong, probably defines the new Trumpian logic, or lack of it.
joe on Thu, 15th Dec 2016 4:58 pm
If the US could flip Russia, it would totally isolate China and give Trump tons of leverage. Obama has almost flipped Iran. Seems obvious to me that Americas enemies are the ones twisting Presidents arms, ie Israel, Saudi, Egypt, China, North Korea.
Trump is many things, but more than anything he will be POTUS, this guy ripped off the people who built Trump Tower! He has NO scruples. He says he loves America and that he wants to make America great again. Thats the fire Americans must hold his feet to.
joe on Thu, 15th Dec 2016 5:02 pm
Davy some people dont care about the climate. We are not dealing with rational people, strictly speaking. Neocons are more worried about Israel and their politics. They want to be the last ones left standing on a planet resembling Mars!