by Amy Harder (Axios) … At issue here is the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, whose focus is oil and gas refining.
Driving the news: Royal Dutch Shell, under pressure from activist investors, announced earlier this year it was leaving AFPM, citing “material misalignment”” on climate policies. Exxon is opting to stay and try to influence the group’s positioning, Nick Schulz, Exxon’s director of stakeholder engagement, said at a recent conference.
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An Exxon spokesperson said the company doesn’t support AFPM’s position against increasing fuel efficiency standards.
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Exxon also supports the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and a carbon tax. Those positions ring hollow to many environmentalists who accuse the oil giant of having muddled the science on climate change decades ago in an effort to stymie action.
Yet Exxon also faces skepticism among smaller oil companies and some conservative interest groups for what they see as a massive corporation trying to push out its smaller competitors via government policy. READ MORE
OIL AND GAS EYES DEMOCRATIC BACKERS: (Politico’s Morning Energy)
The Digest’s 2019 Multi-Slide Guide to the ExxonMobil annual Outlook (Biofuels Digest)
Wayne Tracker aka Rex Tillerson Testifies in Court, Exxon Scientists Testify in the House (Our Daily Planet; includes VIDEOs)
Excerpts from Politico’s Morning Energy: OIL AND GAS EYES DEMOCRATIC BACKERS: Oil and gas industry lobbyists are shoring up support over its responsibility for climate change among newly elected, oil-state Democrats and senior members, like Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Whip Jim Clyburn, Pro’s Zack Colman reports this morning.
“I think our industry feels that we’re on offense and defense,” American Gas Association CEO Karen Harbert told POLITICO. “I do think that there are misunderstandings about our industry and whether it is a clean source of energy.”
In a recent interview, Clyburn dismissed the Green New Deal as “aspirational thoughts by somebody,” and laughed off Democrats who say oil and natural gas use must be eliminated in the coming decades to solve climate change. Another of the industry’s Democratic supporters, Freshman Rep. Lizzie Fletcher of Texas, told POLITICO: “There is a concern obviously about the increasing global temperatures, but I think that’s an area where we’re still gathering the data on what is the timeframe, what is a workable plan.”
Lobbyists who spoke with Zack said they’re actively engaging with freshmen Democrats, party leaders and its centrists, discussing issues like reducing energy bills for low-income consumers or creating unionized jobs.
Oil and gas backers are also beginning to spread some of their money to those members. The American Petroleum Institute is also discussing amping up its relatively diminutive PAC, which distributed less than $200,000 in contributions last cycle, according to FEC data, and spending more on Democrats, according to an oil and gas industry source.
“More than ever there’s definitely a push from the membership to be less partisan and to ensure that oil and gas isn’t a Republican issue,” the source said. READ MORE
